Curry or Sanchez - The heir to Hagler's number 1 spot ???

We all know curry took over from Hagler in 85/86 as the World's best fighter........Rightly or wrongly...........However had he lived Sanchez schedule shows he had return matches with the highly rated Wilfredo Gomez and Azumah Nelson lined up.....Matches you'd expect him to win and fights that would market the popular Mexican even more.........

Shove in a routine defence against a Hector Cortez or someone and it takes Gomez to 85............Five years at the top and some quality fighters on his record (Nelson wouldn't be the great win we view it now though).....

By this time Chavez would be still green but respected at 130 and my guess is Sal probably takes him in 85 but no later!!................

This would leave Sanchez and Curry to battle for the Hagler spot!!..................However little men under lightweight don't usually get rewarded so highly........

My guess is Curry would still have been number 1...being American would help................However Sanchez for me should have been P4P number 1..and I think he would have been..but Boxing politics being what it is..

Camacho would beat him.............at 135 however.

Said it before out of all the ring deaths over the years Boxing missed out on this guy the most!!

Interesting question, Truss.

Much of Curry's legend is based on the way he unified his division, so I'm guessing Sanchez may well have been a claimant to the pound for pound title a little earlier than Don had he managed to take Pedroza's WBA strap. The potential rematches with Gomez, La Porte and Nelson always get bandied around when people talk of what was on Sal's horizon, but to me the Pedroza unification bout was the big one. I guess most would predict that Sanchez would run away with that one, but I think it'd be a tough task for him and he'd need to be at his best, as he was against Gomez and La Porte, to be sure of the win. He wasn't averse to struggling with awkward, rangy fighters and as he showed right up until the McGuigan fight, Pedroza had plenty to offer.

I think if Sanchez had done that around 1982 / 1983, just before Curry really emerged as a major star, then it'd be hard to displace him as number one / Hagler's biggest rival as long as he kept winning, so Curry may well have had to settle for number two or three even after cleaning up at 147 lb.

Pedroza's style would have been uncomfortable for a smaller counterpuncher...

I agree styles make fights and it's a tough one...

Thing is anyone below 135 tends not to get the credit they deserve....

Remember KO once said about Nelson-Mcguigan.. superfights take place higher up!!

Might be true of p4p positions too...Featherweight would count against him..

Not to mention that Arguello wouldn't have been too far away either, now that would be a mouth watering prospect, the winner of that I imagine would have gone for Pryor, so much would have changed had Sanchez not passed away so young.

Agreed ghosty...The fights this kid could have been in..

At his age he was only ever going to have got better, Chavez was one lucky sod, brilliant has he was the timing of his career was near on perfect.

Think Chavez was unlucky..........He was naturally bigger than Sal.....and it is a tough fight however you look at it....

Chavez missed out on a Barrera-Morales type trilogy..

Somebody out of Duran, Arguello, Sanchez and Chavez was fortunate to miss another, their paths were seperated by at points a year.

Pryor vs Duran was a close call too..wow what a fight!!

Had of these match ups materialised someones greatness starts to diminish and at no point do I see that being Arguello or Duran.