Ricardo Lopez vs Humberto Gonzalez/Michael Carbajal

[JK1700]

How do you guys think these fights would've gone? At Finito's peak both of these guys were always mentioned as opponents for him but it never happened. It made a lot of sense since they were both HOF fighters and would've added a lot to his legacy. I don't blame him for not fighting Gonzalez because they were both trained by Nacho and so for that reason it was never going to happen, unfortunately.

Carbajal would've been a very interesting fight because he was big for that weight and had legitimate KO power and was never out of any fight for that reason (See Jorge Arce fight). I think Chiquita would've been the harder fight though because he could move and box just as well as he could brawl. He learned both.

I'm a big fan of all 3, and I think Lopez would've beat both just because he was the most complete of all them. But we saw against Rosendo Alvarez that he could be pushed by someone who could box and punch. How do you guys think he would've done against these guys? I think the Gonzalez fight would've been very close but I would've gave Carbajal a great chance too just because of his power. I see Lopez beating him but it would've been a lot like the Alvarez fights in that he would've just kept coming. Gonzalez was a big puncher but he boxed against Carbajal.

Ultimately I think Lopez would've beat both of them though.

[ShoulderRoll]

I always wanted to see Lopez vs Carbajal. For me Finito was a better overall boxer and he could punch too so I would give him the edge.

Chiquita Gonzalez was more well rounded than Carbajal so it would be the more difficult fight. But he didn't box as well as Lopez who, in my opinion, will go down in history as Nacho's finest student. (Sorry JMM.)

[JK1700]

Good post bro, I agree

I always wanted to see Lopez vs Carbajal. For me Finito was a better overall boxer and he could punch too so I would give him the edge.

Chiquita Gonzalez was more well rounded than Carbajal so it would be the more difficult fight. But he didn't box as well as Lopez who, in my opinion, will go down in history as Nacho's finest student. (Sorry JMM.)

There was a lot of talk of the fights happening around 1994-1995 but the problem was Gonzalez and Lopez trained together, and Chiquita ended up winning the 2nd and 3rd fights. I feel like if Carbajal had won either of those he would've got the fight. The Carbajal fight still could've happened, but by the time he got the title back he wasn't the same guy. He had a pretty close fight with Cob Castro who was a skilled guy but not on Lopez's level at all. Lopez was peaking around this time.

Some people argue Gonzalez was greater than Lopez due to his resume, but obviously that doesn't mean he was the better fighter. He was notable for being a great brawler who developed into a great boxer also later in his career. However he did lose his titles to Saman who Lopez stopped in 2 rounds a couple of years earlier (who made 10 title defenses of the belt). Ricardo to me is one of the greatest technical boxers I have ever seen, I read an interview where JMM said he was his mentor when he was coming up. You can see their styles are very similar.

[JK1700]

It's crazy how similar these two fights are, almost totally identical. On another note it would've been cool to see Sorjaturong vs Carbajal for the WBC/IBF belts. That would've been another tremendous fire-fight and it should've happened.