Is The Legend of Salvador Sanchez overrated?

Let me clarify first that I am not a Sanchez hater, but a fan. But I do think that his stature in boxing lore grew bigger once he passed away so young, in his prime and still unbeaten as champ. Both Sanchez never cleaned the division nor ever attempted to unify the title. Before he died he was calling out Alexis Arguello at lightweight (Arguello's remark was "Is this kid nuts or suicidal?"). Sure, Sanchez defeated Wilfredo Gomez convincingly and became the #1 P4P boxer at the time (Gomez was the #1 at that time before he lost to Sanchez). But it is also true that Gomez did not prepared well for that fight. In fact the same day of the fight at the weight-in, Gomez came above the 126 lbs limit and was given time to put three sweater and jog under the insufferable La Vegas noon sun to shed the extra weight. Another thing is that Sanchez never fought the long reigning champ Eusebio Pedroza, who got tired of calling him out for the duration of all his featherweight reign until he passed away. Also Sanchez biggest name challengers, besides Gomez and Danny Lopez were a bunch of rookies: Juan Laporte (15-1), Azumah Nelson (13-0), Patrick Ford (15-0) while Pedroza had in his resume guys like Alfonso Zamora (to whom he lost his first title challenge), Ruben Olivares, Royal Kobayashi, Rocky Lockridge and later added both Laporte & Ford, plus Jorge Lujan & Barry mcguigan among the names of his twentysomething title defenses. Sanchez was planning to jump to lightweight (and face an almost sure KO defeat against Arguello) without giving Pedroza a chance to decide who was the true featherweight champ. BTW Pedroza TKO Ford whom just two fights prior had given Sanchez hell.

I admired Sanchez for being a gym rat and a true athlete. His chin was great. He was very good, but not that great like many think as THE best boxer ever from Mexico (that honor belongs to Julio Cesar Chavez whom I despised all my life, but that truly deserves that motto).

 

Great, great featherweight, he's number three on my list behind Sandy Saddler and Willie Pep.

I never liked him though, and I followed him from his early days in Mexico reading Ring magazine, and then finally seeing him in person in 1978.

He did a job on the great Danny "Little Red" Lopez twice in textbook fashion, a tremendous fighter, but I just didn't care for Sanchez.

 

Great, great featherweight, he's number three on my list behind Sandy Saddler and Willie Pep.

I never liked him though, and I followed him from his early days in Mexico reading Ring magazine, and then finally seeing him in person in 1979.

He did a job on the great Danny "Little Red" Lopez twice in textbook fashion, a tremendous fighter, but I just didn't care for Sanchez.

 

I could never call him the best at featherweight because I always thought that the day he faced Pedroza was going to be beaten. I always wondered if a well trained Gomez could had beaten him. Gomez cried the day he heard Sanchez died, not because they were friends, but because he will never be able to avenge his loss.

 

Gomez never had a chance with Sanchez. Gomez was no featherweight and was always better served to facing fighters moving up from 118. He didn't have the punch resistance.

 

Sanchez's TALENT & SKILL LEVEL isn't Overrated, but his GREATNESS Is...



REED:mj:

 

Like anyone who dies before "their time".

A legend is created in most cases based on what could have been.

This is not quite the case with Salvador. He wasn't a Len Bias with enormous potential that died before realizing their potential.

He had already achieved a tremendous amount at a young age.

 

Did the Lone Ranger shit on Silver's back when going after the bad guys? No.

 

He may be a little overrated but I can assure you Gomez NEVER, EVER would have beaten Sanchez. Sanchez would have thrashed his ass in a rematch as well, the first match was decisive enough.

 

I don't think so. Why then even the sports writers in Mexico were giving Sanchez so little chance to win? Even with the first round knockdown Gomez was getting the fight even up until his eyes swolled enough to make it almost impossible for him to see. Many thought that because Humberto Chiquita Gonzalez was KO brutally by Michael Carbajal he had zero business with him in a rematch, but Gonzalez went to defeat Carbajal twice after that. A well trained, highly motivated Gomez was simply unstoppable. I think he had a good chance in a rematch.

 

Gonzalez DOMINATED Carbajal up until the KO. Gomez GOT DOMINATED up until the time he got pasted. Kinda like he got pasted by the other elite featherweight he fought.

Gomez was a great fighter, but a mediocre featherweight with a sucky chin.

 

Yeah I am sure he wasn't motivated at all with all the shit he talked going into that fight. get real. Gomez, got beaten up and knocked out. That's all there is to it. Hell Sanchez isn't even a fast starter the fight was only going to get worse. No, Gomez wasn't "unstoppable", you must have missed him getting beatdown by Sanchez. As has been pointed out the Gonzalez-Carbajal comparison is laughable.....

 

Sanchez is great and not overrated imho, his win over nelson proves it no matter if he was 13-0 or not and the fact that Sanchez was the only man ever to stop him.
However, I always thought that Azumah would have won if they rematched.

 

if you ask anyone who covered boxing in the late 70s and early 80s, they'd be the first to tell you that wilfredo gomez was all fucked up at the weigh-in. i heard the betting odds changed drastically at the sportbook right before the fight.

nevertheless sanchez beat gomez down and would've done so in a rematch.

awesome fighter from the tapes i've seen.

roy jones once said sanchez is the greatest fighter he's ever seen.

 

Overrated is subjective...I think Sanchez does often get overrated because of the potential of what he could've been. Not that he didn't achieve a lot in his short time, but fighters tend to get overrated when their careers or lives are cut short.

Sanchez is greater though than the other fighters though that usually fit this mold.

 

As usual Val is right.

Sanchez IS a little overrated.

But to call yourself a Sanchez fan and think Gomez would have beaten him in the rematch? ::

Quite clearly - you're not a sanchez fan.

Sanchez would have beaten Gomez 10 out of 10.

Sanchez was a much better featherweight than Gomez.

 

That's just a front to make it appear that he's not biased because he's Puerto Rican.

 

agREED.

 

True, but Sanchez's career still had a way to go before he could really be considered among the very best fighters ever, which is where many seem to want to place him. He never (and never seemed interested) tried to unify the Featherweight title against Pedroza. I have a hard time calling Sanchez one of the best ever when I am not even sure he was the best fighter at his weight during his heyday.

 

Agreed.

 

Well that's true, but what would have happened between Sanchez and Pedroza is pure speculation. Most "experts" are about 50/50 on who would have won that fight. Chances are it would have been close enough that a rematch or two might have been needed.

I don't know much about the situation of him being disinterested in the fight so i can't say. However if they both continued to clean house, the demand for the fight probably would have been too big to get away from even if he (Sanchez) truely didn't want it.

 

I know, pretty obvious, even before I got to the post where he said Gomez would have won a rematch ::

In fact, don't you hate it when people do that? Criticise a fighter under the guise that "I'm really a fan" ::

Like Sly with mosley for example.

Just man up and admit you don't like someone, or that you have ulterior motives - like beign Rican.

It's almost like me pretending I'm a fan of Hamed or Lewis, while criticising them.

 

Bullshit. I collect everything I can grab on Sanchez. I even saved the newspaper articles from his fights when he was still alive. :flip:I liked Sanchez as a boxer and much more as a human being. He was humble and not an arrogant prick like coke sniffer Gomez. But I still think that had Gomez had prepared well for that fight the result could had been different. Almost 90% of the boxing analists, experts and pro boxers picked Gomez to win. Were all of them biased? I don't think so.

 

Those same experts picked Cheato Chinisbad to beat Hopkins too.

 

Bullshit and you know that. Even myself didn't gave Tito much of a chance except for a miracle punch that never materialized.

 

Trinidad was indeed a solid favorite for the Hopkins fight, among the odds, "experts", and boxing forums.

 

What the fuck are you talking about? The majority of "experts" and fans picked tito, as did the bookies, Trinidad was a 3 to 1 favourite, I remember, as I bet Hopkins.

Moron.

 

I should close this thread to prevent irreparable damage to this guy...but I'm not gonna.

 

haha panchyprsss is a clown

 

That's NOT Accurate:nono:...

If it WAS Accurate, Carbajal-Gonzalez I WOULDN'T B Regarded as 1 of the Greatest Fights EVER...

Yes, Chiquita was WINNING the Fight, but it's NOT Like Carbajal Made Some Miraculous, Come from Behind Effort to Win...Carbajal was IN the Fight All the Way...


REED:hammert: