Comments Thread For: Daily Bread Mailbag: Teofimo Lopez, how good is Bakhram Murtazaliev, can Jaron Ennis unify, and the late Salvador Sanchez

[Casualfanforyou]

Flame me if you want. Every ethnicity is racist. It will continue to the end of time. Bringing it up is childs play. There's always bad apples in the group. Get over it.

[J.C. Superstar]

Great comments by Breadman about the late, great Salvador Sanchez. He might have lived to become the single best fighter of the ‘80’s, or he might have lost his very next fight to Pedroza. Eusebio was certainly a bad style for him.
As it stands, amongst ‘80’s greats, I can’t rate Salvador higher than Hagler, Leonard, Hearns, Chavez or Spinks. Aaron Pryor’s two wins over Arguello arguably put him ahead of Sanchez as well and, while his decade was obviously inconsistent, Duran’s highs (W15 Leonard, W12 Barkley at age 37) surpass anything Sanchez achieved. Even the super fight victory over Gomez.

Not trying to diminish Pryor, but I hold Sal Sanchez's resume in higher regard than "The Hawk" because despite that while he should get a degree of credit for beating Arguello X2 and Cervantes, they were already quite on the downslide, specially Cervantes.

Whereas Sanchez had five wins over prime fighters in Juan Laporte, Danny Lopez X2, Azumah Nelson and Wilfredo Gomez. Most of them fighting near or at their natural weight class.

I agree with what Bread said, Sanchez's capabilities is largely recognized because he had an early death coupled with his largely undefeated record, people are bound to overestimate what the trajectory of his career would had been.

[Mark Elding]

Not trying to diminish Pryor, but I hold Sal Sanchez's resume in higher regard than "The Hawk" because despite that while he should get a degree of credit for beating Arguello X2 and Cervantes, they were already quite on the downslide, specially Cervantes.

Whereas Sanchez had five wins over prime fighters in Juan Laporte, Danny Lopez X2, Azumah Nelson and Wilfredo Gomez. Most of them fighting near or at their natural weight class.

I agree with what Bread said, Sanchez's capabilities is largely recognized because he had an early death coupled with his largely undefeated record, people are bound to overestimate what the trajectory of his career would had been.

Sanchez' brief reign was extraordinary for its activity level and quality of competition. It’s perfectly reasonable to rank it above Pryor’s. But I disagree that Arguello was in any way on the slide when Pryor first beat him. He was in terrific form and, with the recent retirement of Ray Leonard, a case could be made that Alexis was the number one boxer in the sport at that time. He was more accomplished than Marvellous Marvin. I would be more inclined to argue that Danny Lopez was in decline when Sanchez took him apart, and was stylistically made for him in any case, and the eventual great Nelson was an undeveloped novice in comparison.

[J.C. Superstar]

Sanchez' brief reign was extraordinary for its activity level and quality of competition. It’s perfectly reasonable to rank it above Pryor’s. But I disagree that Arguello was in any way on the slide when Pryor first beat him. He was in terrific form and, with the recent retirement of Ray Leonard, a case could be made that Alexis was the number one boxer in the sport at that time. He was more accomplished than Marvellous Marvin. I would be more inclined to argue that Danny Lopez was in decline when Sanchez took him apart, and was stylistically made for him in any case, and the eventual great Nelson was an undeveloped novice in comparison.

Alexis Arguello already had wear and tear at age 30, having had 77 bouts (72 wins and 5 losses). Aaron Pryor was also and his first bout at 140.

Alexis Arguello still performed pretty well at the top level as he was a all time great having a good streak of KOs at 135 without losing, but I wouldn't say Pryor faced the best version of the Nicaraguan, as his lightweight run just isn't as great as his run at super featherweight, of the few elite opposition he faced at 135, he had a debatable split decision win over Jose Luis Ramirez and managed to get a late round 14 stoppage against Ray Mancini in a war where Mancini had the lead early on. Great wins I believe coupled with his wins of his earlier run, but not his best performances.

It is notably clear Arguello struggles with consistent pressure fighters like Vilomar Fernandez, Jose Luis Ramirez and Aaron Pryor. So it is similiar to how stylistically Lopez was made for Sanchez.

I agree that stylistically Sanchez had the right style to fight Little Red. However Danny Lopez at age 27, had 17 (16 KOs) consecutive wins and by the time he fought Sanchez, with consistent performances involving Ruben Olivares, David Kotei X2 Roberto Castaņon and Sean O'Grady which were former champions and current top contenders. He also had a similiar amount of fights to Sanchez at 42 wins with 3 losses. I say Sanchez beat the prime out of him in two consecutive beatings and KOs.

As for Azumah Nelson, yeah I agree he wasn't at his best as he hasn't fought anyone of note. But considering he was 24 years old, had 13 (11 KOs) pro bouts and extensive amateur record, I say he was still a dangerous opponent. Though he never fought beyond 10 rounds in his career and was a late replacement.

[Mark Elding]

Alexis Arguello already had wear and tear at age 30, having had 77 bouts (72 wins and 5 losses). Aaron Pryor was also and his first bout at 140.

Alexis Arguello still performed pretty well at the top level as he was a all time great having a good streak of KOs at 135 without losing, but I wouldn't say Pryor faced the best version of the Nicaraguan, as his lightweight run just isn't as great as his run at super featherweight, of the few elite opposition he faced at 135, he had a debatable split decision win over Jose Luis Ramirez and managed to get a late round 14 stoppage against Ray Mancini in a war where Mancini had the lead early on. Great wins I believe coupled with his wins of his earlier run, but not his best performances.

It is notably clear Arguello struggles with consistent pressure fighters like Vilomar Fernandez, Jose Luis Ramirez and Aaron Pryor. So it is similiar to how stylistically Lopez was made for Sanchez.

I agree that stylistically Sanchez had the right style to fight Little Red. However Danny Lopez at age 27, had 17 (16 KOs) consecutive wins and by the time he fought Sanchez, with consistent performances involving Ruben Olivares, David Kotei X2 Roberto Castaņon and Sean O'Grady which were former champions and current top contenders. He also had a similiar amount of fights to Sanchez at 42 wins with 3 losses. I say Sanchez beat the prime out of him in two consecutive beatings and KOs.

As for Azumah Nelson, yeah I agree he wasn't at his best as he hasn't fought anyone of note. But considering he was 24 years old, had 13 (11 KOs) pro bouts and extensive amateur record, I say he was still a dangerous opponent. Though he never fought beyond 10 rounds in his career and was a late replacement.

Arguello was always more vulnerable against top fighters in non-title fights as his measured approach lent itself more favourably to the longer distance. A real fifteen round fighter, much like Sanchez who probably needed those traditional championship rounds to edge past Pat Ford.

I often wonder how certain fighters and fights would play out over fifteen. Most recently, I think it would have eliminated any controversy in the Beterbiev-Bivol fight, as I suspect Artur would have forced a stoppage in the dying minutes.

[Robi13]

In my opinion, Salvador Sanchez is the best featherweight of all time, and a top 5 all time great and if you have him as the GOAT I wouldn't be mad or argue with you. Special special fighter. We haven't seen anyone like him since him, and I doubt we ever will. I've heard your favorite fighter say he was the best to ever do it more than once.