ATG FEATHERWEIGHT TOURNIE: SF 2 - SANDY SADDLER SD 15 SALVADOR SANCHEZ

Another contrasting meeting in the second semi-final; Sandy Saddler, up from his brutal war with Arguello, and Sanchez, fresh from his knife-edge battle with Saldivar.

Sandy Saddler (seeded 2) was the most brutal featherweight in the division’s history, a stylist who fought with a puncher’s hate, a man of absurd dimensions who fought in the crouch of a sawn-off swarmer, a contradiction on skinny legs that used any and every trick in the book to bend his withering opponents to his will.

Between 1940 and 1951 only one featherweight was able to best Willie Pep, and that featherweight was Saddler. Their first fight, from 1948, saw Pep made a strong favorite and with good reason – he was as brilliant and dominant a champion as had ever lived – but there were reasons to favor Saddler. For two years he had been trailing Pep and was eerily confident of his chances. This confidence was borne out. He found the champion with ease, busting him up, cutting him, and stopping him in four with a brutal left hook. After losing a rematch Saddler auditioned with hate for his rematch, winning twenty-three in a row, eighteen of them by stoppage. In 1950, they met once more.

“He got me in a double arm-lock,” sulked Pep after his ninth round quittage, apparently suffering from a damaged shoulder.

“Body punches,” was Saddler’s riposte. “I could see in his eyes something was wrong but I didn’t think it was no shoulder."

This content is protected

When Salvador Sanchez, seeded six, met Danny Lopez (just missed out) in 1980, he was not particularly well known, nor had he done much to build a reputation that would have made him well known, despite his riding a thirteen fight winning streak. His opposition, though perhaps not quite soft, had been questionable and he had yet to win a fight over a distance longer than ten rounds.

Nor was there great surprise when Sanchez made the early running against Lopez – after all, almost everyone did. What surprised was that, come the championship rounds, he was still battering Lopez around the ring, a superb defense barracked by an excellent chin allowing him to throw concise, compact punches without fear of reprisals. Happily standing toe-to-toe with the champion, Sanchez stopped Lopez in the thirteenth round, hammering him into submission like so much of the limited competition he feasted on throughout the early part of his career.

As the 1980s dawned, so did the title reign of Sal Sanchez, and it was to be a brilliant one. His first defense was perhaps his toughest, against the #2 contender Ruben Castillo. Castillo and Sanchez were almost identical physically, the same age, the same height and of course the same weight; the only significant difference was Sanchez’s advantage in reach. Castillo was then unbeaten outside of a knockout loss to Alexis Arguello, in which he had gathered invaluable experience against a rangier fighter; he applied this against Sanchez, feinting and circling to draw Sanchez across him before throwing the left. It’s beautiful to watch and brought Castillo many of the early rounds; Sanchez made a wonderful adjustment, introducing a shepherding jab and patiently holding his line while applying pressure. Nevertheless, I didn’t see Sanchez ahead until the eleventh in what is my favorite of his performances; in the championship rounds, he assumed control, winning three of the last four.

In his second defense he stopped Danny Lopez for a second time and then matched the huge Ghanaian Pat Ford, a giant of a featherweight who towered over Sanchez. To say the Mexican was troubled in this fight is an understatement and he needed his customary late rally to pull out the decision, winning twelve through fifteen on my card against a game, awkward opponent.

This fight confirmed Sanchez over the distance. He proved it over and again in what were glory days for the featherweight title. He scored a dominant fifteen round decision over the excellent Juan Laporte, ranked #3, stopped #6 Roberto Castanon in ten, crushed the legendary Wilfredo Gomez in eight, staging two more defenses before his legendary contest with Azumah Nelson, a fifteenth round knockout over an opponent he had perhaps taken a little lightly.

Sanchez was repeatedly troubled through this glorious title run which makes me wonder about his future had he not been tragically killed in a car crash in 1982. He had the generalship, stamina, jaw and punch selection to trouble just about anyone but that slow start he was often guilty of may have hurt him against a fighter like Pedroza, or some lesser contender.

But maybe, just maybe, his ability to think on his feet, to adjust across the ring, would have bought his way out of trouble against all of them.

This content is protected

Who will win under the following rules?

15 round fight.
1960s referee.
8oz boxing gloves.
10 points must.

Cast your vote and explain yourself in a post below! You have 3 days.

 

Saddler crushed that guy. It was brutal.

 

Another controversial set of scorecards has sent Sandy Saddler through to the ATG featherweight tournie final; once more in a Saddler contest, any close scorecard would be valid. The officials saw it 8-7, 8-7 and 7-8, but the point Saddler had docked in the ninth meant that Saddler won the fight by just a single point on two cards for the closest of split decisions.

Saddler drove at Sanchez early and almost certainly won each of the four opening rounds, but in the fifth, Sanchez countered Saddler brutally and sent him back onto his heels; Saddler retaliated but was countered again and hurt so badly he ended up tangled in the ropes with the referee forced to intervene. This was arguably a 10-8 round but none of the judges scored it as such. In the sixth, Saddler was more cautious and tried to out-wait and jab with Sanchez but was consistently beaten to the punch or parried and countered. The seventh and eighth were fought at a much slower pace but were clear Sanchez rounds. In the ninth, Saddler opened up a vicious cut above Sanchez's left eye with what appeared to be an accidental butt but was warned by the referee, who then took a point away from Saddler from holding and hitting.

Sanchez, clearly rattled, boxed defensively in the tenth and arguably dropped it to Saddler on activity. Saddler then re-applied pressure down the straight that brought him success early, and Sanchez, bleeding and slightly fatigued, once again struggled to contain him. Arguable rounds brought the fights home and Saddler was reasonably though arguably given the decision.