Gotta say I think Sanchez had way more to his game. I think Sanchez would have won if he stayed alive and they met at 130 in 83/84. Thoughts?
Sal was a better fighter than Chavez. It's just a bit hard to speculate because we never got to see him against an elite opponent at 130. What I suspect is that Sanchez was big enough to carry 130 and would raise his game high enough to outbox Chavez. Chavez is definitely the GREATEST Mexican fighter ever, but I consider Sanchez the best Mexican fighter ever.
When I used to talk to Ruben Castillo, I always wanted to ask him his thoughts on this match up. Or Sanchez/Arguello or Chavez/Arguello. But I didn't want to remind him of any losses so I never asked.
He has stated publicly that he felt that either Chavez or Arguello would knock Sanchez out. He rated them both as far superior to Sanchez.
I remember him telling a story about fighting Chavez. He said he landed one of the best uppercuts of his career on Chavez. Hit him flush on the jaw toward the end of a round. He said Chavez didn't blink. The bell rang, Chavez looked him in the eye and said, "!Chinga tu madre!" (Fuck your mother) to him and walked back to his corner.
Chavez might have beaten Ruben Castillo more impressively than Sanchez did, but Sanchez beat Laporte far more impressively than Chavez did.
When Ruben did commentary for the fights from the Forum, he developed quit the comedic routine around his fight with Chavez. One night he noted that the Budweiser logo was very slippery- he noticed this because he got a close up view thanks to Chavez. He once said that Chavez hit him so hard that he thought about killing Julio's dog in revenge.
Side note but I only started watching Chavez Srs. career recently. I'm about 2/3 of the way through his career. I only watched short highlights previously. It's wild having watched Jr. before watching Sr. You can see where Jr. is doing those Sr. moves with his elbows tucked in as he moves in and tries to create the angle for the left hook to the body, especially when he hurt Martinez in round 12.
He was a cool guy. He was my stepsister's dad. She unfortunately passed away so I'll never see him again. I did meet Juan Laporte at her funeral. Those two are good friends now.
