Salvador Sanchez vs Azuhma Nelson (how highly do you rate the win?)

Beating an up and coming future star is always nice. Many guys have been upset in the very same circumstance. That being said, the result says more about Nelson than Sanchez. Sanchez was leading on two cards and if the 15th round had been allowed to finish it would have been a hard earned unanimous decision. Nelson looked like the much smaller man and with only 13 professional fights under his belt he made the great Sanchez work every step of the way. One thing I did not realize before this post is that the experienced Sanchez was six months younger than Nelson.

 

It was a good win....it doesn't take away from Sanchez legacy it was a tough fight and Nelson was a tough fighter.....Nelson had a tough style for Sanchez and a rematch would have shown it as either a fluke or the real deal. As we saw Nelsons career after that fight it wasn't a fluke it seems but Sanchez at 23 was still getting better

 

Great win and you know what? Nelson lost his 0 and people don't look at him like some sort of inferior loser. He took a shot, rolled the dice, and lost to an ATG. I wish more fighters were like Nelson.

 

Isn't that the truth. That being said, fighters fight much less often these days so a high profile loss, or a win for that matter, does have a bigger effect on the fighter's career.

 

I rate the win highly and I think the fight reflects well on both of them.

Sanchez didn't train to fight Nelson so the fact that he had a tough fight with him as a last minute substitute shouldn't be held against him at all.

If they had rematched later, we csn assume that Nelson would have been better but I don't think we should assume that he would have beaten Sanchez as a result of that. He wouldn't hold the same element of surprise for Sanchez as the first time around.

Nelson went on to be great himself and if anything, the Sanchez performance enhances his legacy. The Nelson win is one of the cornerstones of Sanchez's own legacy so both fighters' reps benefited from that fight. That's a rare achievement for one fight.

 

That brings up another point, fighters should fight more often. I'm not talking every couple weeks like in the 30s, but more than they do now by a margin.

 

Sanchez is the most overrated fighter, non heavyweight, of all time. Nelson became a very good fighter in an era of weak fighters.

 

Awesome for the history books that the fight happened, to be honest. Two young HOF'ers.

 

Very, very good win for Sanchez but I think the circumstances probably prevent it from fitting into the truly great category. A rematch a little further down the line would have been interesting, as Nelson had a knack for performing better in rematches and it stands to reason that he had more improving to do by 1982 than Sanchez did.

Nelson was already very good as evidence by his performance, but the step up from what he'd previously been facing was astronomical and he'd never been past ten rounds before. That's no preparation for a world class stamina machine like Sanchez. I think the spectacle and legend of the fight is fantastic, and both men did enhance their reputations, even more so in retrospect....But I don't think you could say Sanchez beat a genuinely peak Nelson at all.

I guess the fact that he got the stoppage is a nice bonus, as nobody ever stopped Zoomy again after that and aside from round twelve of the first Fenech fight, I can't really remember anyone coming even close. But I do think exhaustion likely played a part in that.

 

8-10. Would have been closer to a 9.5 later on.

 

Not as highly as most.The rematch we were sadly denied would have told us a lot more about Sanchez.

 

I rate it more for Nelson than for Sanchez.
The fight suggests to me that a prime Nelson of 3 years later or so, would have been more than a match for the versions of Sanchez that actually existed.

Still, can't say it's a bad mark on Sanchez's record either, he impressively closed the show against an upstart who was giving him a hell of a challenge.

 

At the time it was a fine win for Sanchez over a talented up and coming contender. Over time it must be looked upon as a GREAT win as Nelson went on to establish himself as a fellow all time great feather.

 

Great fight, great performance by Sal and deserved of a very high rating IMO.

The fight provided excellent insight into Sanchez’s ability to deal with such a shock challenge, remaining so cool and effective under fire while exhibiting an extraordinary chin. Lesser greats might’ve been overwhelmed in huge upsets. However, Sanchez had the look of, okay, this guy is no slouch, let’s get down to business.

Sanchez was no less applied than if the fight had been built up over time as a super fight with the challengers abilities duly acknowledged and well prepared for.

While a rematch down the track might seem to favour Nelson with more fights under his belt, I simply see his performance v Sanchez as extraordinarily great in its own right, independent of experience. Even a fighter destined to be great can still relatively overachieve on his way to his substantive prime. The atmosphere was electric, and it sounded like there was a good number of Ghanaians in support.

Azumah appeared super pumped to be granted such an early shot at the title and he left nothing in the ring.

The PROS for Sanchez in a rematch would be dealing with a known quantity and a Nelson who would likely be a lot less “Devil May Care” in his output, an unharnessed disposition that made no mean contribution to his more stunning successes throughout the fight.