Who Was The Greater Fighter Salvador Sanchez or Ruben Olivares

Could you say the same for the Arguello that Marcel fought? He'd undoutedly fought at a higher level than Nelson had admittedly, but he seemed to slow himself down after that fight as well.

 

Olivares was the only man to stop Gold medalist Sakurai, who only lost one other time, over 15 in a close loss to Lionel Rose for the title.

That fight really demonstrated the nimble southpaws ability, and especially his ability to get in and out of range, but Olivares just scrapped it out and beat the fight out of the Olympian.

He was looking deadly around this time.

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True, I wouldn't disagree a huge deal, but it's still an amazing win. I wasn't really referring to that fight anyway, just saying where Laporte was in his career respectively at the time of the Pedroza and Sanchez fights and that he wasn't a one dimensional fighter as mcvey suggested. He was a better fighter imo when he fought Pedroza, and like you say, styles make fights. I'd say a boxer-puncher like Laporte would have always been a tiny bit more troublesome for Pedroza than he would Sanchez, whereas maybe I'd back Pedroza to handle someone like Castillo a bit more comfortably than Sanchez did, ala Ford (not that Castillo and Ford were comparable in terms of style).

 

Continuing in my any-past-Mexican-fighter-of-an-excellent-standard-is-at-least-as-good-as-the-modern-trinity/anti-christs vein, I think that Castillo would have slotted in very nicely with Barrera, Marquez and Morales and sprung some surprising results in some outstanding fights. I'd actually make him a close favourite over Erik and JMM tbh.

 

Ribs; thoughts on Sakurai and how he fit in with the other contenders? I thought he was very good against Rose.

How d'ya think he'd fare against other champs, an all southpaw battle with Carruthers, or how he'd get on with Becerra or Raton? I think he'd be a sol contender in most era's, seeing as how he got on in that mad house.

 

He looked excellent against Rose, didn't he? Had real pedigree too from the amateur scene. Refined his skill set there and obviously transferred it quite well, though it was perhaps always more likely to be more effective against certain styles than others. I'd say he'd fit very well into any era and do better against the boxer/stylist types than pressure fighters and boxer punchers ala Aoki and Seki, who he had some similarities to imo.

Like you said earlier I think, Olivares just dragged him into a high level scrap where his upright style and lack of power betrayed him. I'd have to think quite hard about fights against Raton, Carruthers and Becerra tbh. Becerra had a bit of Olivares about him in terms of style it seems, so he might have the best chance, especially without Sakurai having the power to hurt him. I'd favour Sakurai over Carruthers on first thought perhaps. Him and Macias.....ooh, I'll get back to you on that.

 

Yeah Raton's as odd one isn't he? Sometimes seemed typically Mexican, but was a superb punch picker and boxer-puncher too.

He beat one Gold medalist already so probably no bother with this one either?

 

Ha, maybe. He was an excellent punch picker, yeah, and a very good counter puncher too. Threaded em very nicely upstairs and down. Very methodical. I recall having a chat with My2Sense, who's quite a fan of Macias, a couple of years ago where we both thought he might have been a good foil for Olivares in a Herreraesque mould.

I really want the Halimi fight to surface to see how controversial it actually was.

 

Ooh, nice. Then again Olivares might well blast him like Peacock :tong

 

Yeah, that came up believe it or not.