Great Juan Laporte interview ... Sanchez best by FAR !!!

I believe this is the wrong link.

 

I do believe that Juan La Porte was correct, Salvador Sanchez was a great fighter, the best for anyone who had fought him. Sanchez was a cool customer in the ring, cool, calm and collected. He was always in great fighting shape, took training seriously and always praised his opponents before and after a fight. He was a very clean fighter in the ring, did not need to backhand or hit an opponent low during a fight when things looked tough to gain an edge. Sanchez was very studious in preparing for every bout. What was impressive was his title defense against future Hall Of Famer Azumah Nelson on July 21 1982 in Madison Square Garden. Nelson, a late substitute for WBC no. 1 ranked Mario Miranda of Colombia gave an extra great effort considering he had something like 14 pro bouts. Sanchez decked Nelson in round 7, then in round 15 finished Nelson off. Sanchez was scheduled to defend his title against Juan La Porte in a rematch on Sept 15 1982 in Madison Square Garden, but fate sometimes is not a very fair. Sanchez was killed in a car accident on August 12 1982 at the tender age of 23. La Porte defeated Mario Miranda on Sept 15 1982 to win the vacant WBC title. Sanchez was on his way to greatness, a bout against WBC Lightweight Champion Alexis Arguello was in the works.

 

For me Juan Laporte has P4P the best chin of the smaller guys, just look how many ATG's he fought and was never off his feet.

My favourite fight of his was the one vs Ruben Castillo man that was a great fight.

 

The title defense against Ruben Castillo for Salvador Sanchez was held in my hometown on April 12 1980, Sanchez retained by unanimous decision.

 

Ruben Castillo fought Arguello and Sanchez 90 days apart and said that Arguello would knock Sanchez out. He also said that Chavez would stop Sanchez. Then again, Castillo and Sanchez were not close personal friends. If you do the research you will find that LaPorte and Sanchez were very close.
Sanchez has become the most overrated fighter of all time- at least in the class of "Young Foreman", "Prime Ali", and "unbeatable" RJJ. And this is an example of how the "prime" conversations become absurd: It is generally taken for granted that Lopez was "prime" when he lost to Sanchez. Only a fool would believe that. While not "shot" Lopez was clearly past his best by the time he won the title and had been carefully matched the entire time. He had the opportunity to fight a weak champion and made the best of it.
I am the biggest Lopez fan that has ever lived- he was the only idol that I have ever had in my life. But he was by no means a great fighter. Tremendous heart, a thunderous right hand, entertaining as hell, but not great. But him being "great" has become part of the mythology of Sanchez, just like Norton and Frazier and Liston being great are the foundational stones of the Ali myth.
Sanchez beat a Lopez with a million miles on him, a Nelson with not enough miles on him (and Nelson was never great either), and a Gomez that had been battling weight issues forever and had lost his legs some years before they fought. Watch the Pintor fight and watch his legs and tell me he wasn't worn. Gomez got a gift against Lockridge and beat LaPorte who was never much more than a heavy bag that sometimes punched back.

 

How dare you question Saint Sanchez of Mexico with your reasonable argument's. Don’t you know he’s the greatest Mexican boxer ever?

 

Sanchez beat Gomez 6 fights before he met Pintor, 8 fights before he fought Laporte and 10 fights before he met Lockridge.

The Sanchez beating was a big part of what put mileage on Gomez. I don't recall much talk of him being faded going into Sanchez. The Pintor war certainly took more out of him, the Nelson stoppage more again and he was past it well and truly by Lockridge which was fought at 130. Sanchez beat a Gomez considered at the top of his game and any weight problems were of his own making as this was fought a division up from the one he ruled. He actually moved back down and defended his 122 pound title a further four times post Sanchez.

It's fair to say Sanchez beat the very best out of him.

 

Castillo also still claims to this day he beat Sanchez, I personally don't think Castillo has a case despite giving Sanchez problems early on, Sanchez certainly did enough in the later rounds to win a fairly comfortable decision by a few rounds.

And just to say counter that argument somewhat, yes you could say all these things about Lopez, Gomez, Nelson, but then I ask you how many other fighters of Sanchez's age had that kind of resume ?

No one was saying Lopez was shot going into Sanchez fight, no one said about the weight for Gomez going into the fight. Whether or not if it wasn't Gomez best weight, it's still a great win. And yes Nelson was green but kind of like how Witherspoon was green vs Holmes, it was still a great performance from Nelson, and he still would of beat alot of top fighters based on that performance.

 

You are correct- Gomez beat my friend Roberto Rubaldino before he beat Pintor. But I will say this...in my effort to learn more about Gomez, because I never saw what everybody else saw, I purchased probably a dozen of his fights. He looked good when he beat my neighbor Davila. Most of the other fights he was a guy with bad legs. How he beat Zarate is a mystery to me, Zarate says he was sick, but it is what it is.
Now, you are a knowledgeable guy, we have been batting ideas back and forth around here for a number of years. Go back and watch the first round of Gomez v Sanchez and tell me that Gomez does not have dead legs. He gives every single sign of being on dead legs.
Salvador Sanchez vs Wilfredo Gomez - YouTube
There is the fight. Watch his legs and tell me that I am wrong. His legs are stiff and he is punching like a guy that is shot out- weight drained over period of time. Look at him in that first round and tell me where I am wrong.

 

I don't think that Ruben won the fight- I thought that he was ahead after 10 but lost it down the stretch.
The people matching Lopez knew he was done. Look at who he was defending against and the trouble he had with them. Juan Malvarez? Roberto Castanon?
Azumah Nelson was not considered a great win at the time. In fact, it was a moment of Sanchez being "exposed." It didn't become a great win until Nelson knocked out what was left of Gomez.
Watch the video I posted in another comment of the Gomez v Sanchez fight and tell me that Gomez had legs and wasn't drained coming into that fight. It wasn't marketed that way, but I don't have any doubt that everybody in boxing at the time knew about Gomez and where his legs were.

 

Roberto Castanon was rated the number 3 Featherweight and was 30-0, and your also forgetting Danny Lopez beat Mike Ayala in what was named the Fight Of The Year, just 8 months before he lost the crown to Sanchez. And Ayala was also rated the number 4 Featherweight, so i don't really understand your argument, Lopez beat two highly rated challengers only shortly before he lost the crown to Sanchez. So where was there any indication of Lopez being on his last legs ? he knocked out Castanon in 2 rounds and Ayala in a great fight.

Yes i know Azumah Nelson was not considered a great win at the time, but as i've already pointed out. Despite Nelson being green he fought a great fight, similar to how Witherspoon who was green vs Holmes fought a great fight. And put the Nelson who fought Sanchez vs most of the top 10 Featherweights at that time, or Witherspoon who fought Holmes against most of the top 10 Heavyweights at the time, and both men would of beaten i'd say 90 percent of the top 10 based on those performances.

As for Gomez i'm not into making excuses for him, no one forced him to move up to Featherweight. Yes we know Gomez was better at Super Bantamweight, just like when Gomez beat Zarate who was better at Bantamweight. But Sanchez was 22 years old fighting against 32-0 well respected champion, and if they would of had P4P rankings at that time he would of been P4P top 5. Sanchez destroyed a great fighter and he deserves credit for it, i don't really see why we have to try and discredit the win.

I mean who else would you of wanted Sanchez to fight ? he beat a great fighter in Gomez, a very good fighter long reigning Featherweight champion in Lopez, a future great fighter in Nelson, tough challengers like Castillo, Laporte, stylistically tough fighters like Ford, Cowdell, it's probably the most impressive resume ever for a fighter of only 23 years old.

 

He fought who was available. My contention is that his body of work in no way justifies calling him a top 3 all time featherweight.
About Lopez...if my memory is accurate Castanon had all his fights in Spain and ranking him 3rd...he would not have been the 3rd best featherweight in Los Angeles. And being in the fight of the year is very rarely a symbol that you displayed great skill. It usually means that you got hit a lot. Ayala, again, came basically from nowhere and returned there after the fight.

 

You seem to be a bit of a deconstructionist — take anyone’s resumes and if you look at it fight by fight through just the right lens you can find holes to poke (legitimately or not). You call Ali being great a myth, but he cleaned out the heavyweight division not once but twice, and also lost 3+ years of his prime and still beat a ton of Hall of Famers.

If Ali did’nt have a good resume, my question is who did?