Sanchez defeated about every great fighter that you could face in defending his WBC featherweight title including Hall of Famers Danny "Little Red" Lopez, Wilfredo Gomez and Azumah Nelson, future champion Juan LaPorte and fighters that had championship ability but came along at the wrong time such as Ruben Castillo and Patrick Ford, but there was one fighter that Sanchez did not face and even though this man wasn't nearly smooth or as classically smooth as Salvador Sanchez, most observers believe that a Salvador Sanchez-Eusebio Pedroza fight would have been a pick-em fight.Eusebio Pedroza passed away yesterday at 61 from cancer and despite holding the record for featherweight title defenses with 19 successful defenses of his WBA title, entering the boxing hall of fame and many appearances on American television, never seemed to receive the credit that he deserved.
Even though a Sanchez-Pedroza fight was so intriguing to consider and which fighter had the edge, to the best of my knowledge, such a fight was never seriously close to occurring and that fight ranks near the top of my "Best fights that never happened, but could/should have".
Remember, while boxing fans gripe about the four world titles today (myself included), even in the two title era, title unifications rarely happened.
Right off the top of my head, the unification fights that happened in the first half of the 80s during Pedroza and Sanchez's reigns were Michael Spinks-Dwight Muhammad Qawi at light heavyweight, Marvin Hagler's middleweight titles were still unified from the 70s, Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns at welterweight and that was pretty much the slate of unification fights.
In other words, they usually had to be such a big fight that plenty of money was to be made and that meant closed-circuit television or at least HBO in a time where HBO usually only put fights of mainstream interest on their platform- as well known as both fighters were to the American audience, a fight between the two wasn't big enough to reach that level, but was too big for the networks and with Pedroza being promoted by Bob Arum and Sanchez was part of the Don King team, it was caught in the too big to be small and too small to be big trap, which sounds very familiar to the current boxing fan.
The success of Pedroza was surprising when he won the WBA featherweight title in 1978 with a 13th round knockout of Cecilio Lastra when you consider that his previous title challenge at bantamweight ended with a second-round knockout at the hands of Alfonso Zamora.
Even though Zamora ranks as one of the biggest punchers in boxing history, a questionable chin at bantamweight generally doesn't improve at featherweight, so one wouldn't have been questioned had an observer wondered about Pedroza's long term possibilities.
What we didn't know about the lanky (5'8 is taller at 126 pounds) Panamanian was these two factors that would stand out when watching his title defenses.
One of these was that Pedroza "stretched the rules" which like countryman Roberto Duran could be considered "dirty" and the other played along with that factor as Pedroza was a very underrated fighter inside for a fighter that had the build of a boxer that would be better suited to box from long range.
Watching the "Tactics" of Pedroza on television made Pedroza almost a pro wrestling type heel as a fighter that fans watched with hopes that he would be defeated and usually not speaking English is a disadvantage in attracting viewers, but I always thought for Pedroza it was an advantage because he came off so arrogant and almost regal.
Sometimes, when you say nothing it can mean more than saying a lot, and Pedroza used his lack of English to intimidate opponents despite not possessing classic KO power.
Pedroza racked up wins over quality fighters as well with wins over Hall of Famer Ruben Olivares (although Olivares was close to used up by that time), champions Royal Kobayashi, Jorge Lujan, Juan LaPorte, and Rocky Lockridge, and a draw against undefeated Olympian Bernard Taylor, but for all of those wins with the LaPorte win with the two victories over Lockridge looming largest of wins, it was his win over Patrick Ford that might be Pedroza's command performance.
Guyana's Ford had taken Salvador Sanchez to the brink of defeat just six months before in losing a majority decision (the Sanchez-Ford fight also saw one of the most ridiculous cards that I have ever seen- 148-139 for Sanchez) and was thought to be either a live underdog or even a mild favorite to dethrone Pedroza, who had looked very vulnerable in squeaking by Lockridge via a split decision in their first fight.
Instead, Pedroza won every round on two cards, lost just one round on the third in an outing so dominant that Ford's career was essentially broken (Ford would fight just five more times, finishing 3-2, losing to a fighter with an 8-8-1 record and his wins were over opponents with records of 4-4, 6-3 and 1-1) in defeat.
The win over Ford saw Pedroza (who appeared on US television for the first time against Lockridge) begin to upgrade his competition even more as his wins over Laporte, Lockridge II, Lujan, and the Bernard Taylor draw all came after that fight.
Even comparing the two Lockridge wins, Pedroza seems much more in charge and confident in the second, which was after the Ford win, and perhaps that was when Pedroza truly felt that he was a great fighter.
Still, the signs were there for a decline, the close escapes vs Lockridge (unanimous but by one point on two cards), LaPorte (Pedroza fouled LaPorte constantly) and the draw vs Taylor had Pedroza positioned as a great champion that was ready to fall and the team behind Ireland's Barry McGuigan paid Pedroza one million dollars, an all-time featherweight record to give McGuigan the home-court advantage.
The decision was a good call for McGuigan, who dropped Pedroza in the seventh round on his way to a unanimous decision.
Pedroza collected his dollars and took over a year off before a leap to the lightweight division where he lost to Edgar Castro by split decision and after the loss, Pedroza retired for five years before a four-fight comeback in which he won three of four against mediocre competition.
For as great as Eusebio Pedroza was as a champion, it's still the unanswered question- Who would have won had he entered the ring against Salvador Sanchez?
What makes the fight intriguing is that Sanchez wasn't as effective when forced to lead as was shown in his split decision win over Pat Cowdell, who stayed in a fight that he had no business being in by simply refusing to throw first and Pedroza had a two-inch height and a half inch reach advantage and may have been able to force Sanchez to enter the trenches, whereas noted, Pedroza may have pulled everything out of his backpack, roughed Sanchez up as he had never been roughed up in past fights and won a close and likely controversial decision.
Still, something makes me think Sanchez pulls this out and I see it playing out as such-Sanchez does manage to be the aggressor much as he did against Wilfredo Gomez, builds a lead, frustrates Pedroza enough that Pedroza begins the fouling tactics and loses a few points to even out a middle-round rally before the bully begins to accept the outcome with Sanchez winning the later rounds to win the fairly close, but unanimous decision.
I would not say that's the only outcome, just a guess at the most likely one.
Eusebio Pedroza was a great champion and one not always appreciated during his time, but as so many fighters are, would be better remembered after retirement than during his reign.
And again as boxing so often gives its fans, remembered almost as much for the fight that never happened as the fights that actually happened.
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