Oh MAN this would be so great! I love those fighters... Salvador would be his usual, Mr. Cool self, patiently jabbing and setting up lightning fast combos. Alexis has trouble landing everything but the right hand, and even that is seldom. On the two or three occasions he lands flush Sanchez goes back toward the ropes, but visible shakes it off hard and just goes back to careful jabbing. As much as I love Alexis, Salvador's inimitable cool and patience catches up to him....the former is drunk in the middle rounds, hammered by the 11th, and the ref has to stop it after a ten punch combination has AA out on his feet.
Sanchez close. Arguello hits harder than anything Sal faced, true. He would also have size but Sanchez being faster on his feet and busier would win more rounds. Arguello I can see starting slow but also Sanchez would be thinking with him and then you’d see the best of both and I think Sanchez chin can take what Alexis would dish out. Very close fight. Two great fighters and personal favorites.
This was the fight that we were robbed of seeing had it not been for Sanchez's untimely death and it would have been a classic battle between 2 ATGs. Very tough to choose between the two honestly. I'll have to think hard on this one. One things for sure, I don't think Arguello can knockout Sanchez.
I'm gonna sound like a homer on this one, but I do think Sanchez beats him, as huge a fan of Arguello as I am as well...… To beat Sanchez, you needed to move a lot; I don't mean run, but side-to-side movement helped, and you needed to just keep your hands in his face; stop him from doing his thing, which was to move and feint and probe and shift and get you to react to things he may not even be doing. The point was, he got you guessing, he got you busy wondering about what he was doing or going to be doing next, and it was a great tool. It sounds easier than it was in practice of course, but that I think was how you unlocked that mystery; try to get HIM to react, rather than the other way around. That just wasn't Arguello's style. He stalked, jabbed, set himself, and unloaded the heavy stuff. He was tremendously skilled at it, and had stamina to burn as well and lots of intrinsic things that would make life hell for anyone. I just don't think he had the right skillset to beat Sanchez.
Sanchez. His movement would bother Arguello, and I believe he'd be disciplined enough to keep it up. Arguello is not his stylistic disadvantage.
Sanchez had that sneaky right, and I think AA (as amazing a fighter as he was) would have just been caught with it too much. Sanchez was also more adroit than Pryor, deftly moving in and out... AA would have had more trouble getting set than he did against Aaron, spelling his eventual TKO doom.
Some great responses in this thread befitting the two great fighters and this awesome matchup. Great stuff! I’m going to sit on the fence and just read what others think because I love both these guys (Arguello is in my top 5 all time faves) and I really can’t split them.
Sanchez by close decision at 126. I know there was talk of the two fighting shortly before Sanchez's death at a higher weight, where I think Arguello wins.
