Salvador Sanchez Overrated?

I think there’s a difference between rating him highly and trying to pick holes in his legacy so whoever has been talking to you about Sanchez seems to have an agenda or some clear bias against him. When you appraise his career objectively, I think there are areas of potential doubt and possible weaknesses but these are countered by clear areas of strength and, yes, greatness that he displayed. There’s the great, the somewhat bad and the unknown with Sanchez.

I can go into more detail if you want but that’s my initial reaction to your post.

 

He definitely strays in that era.

 

He was accomplished enough to be considered great. Despite only living to 23. And he was experienced, seasoned, complete.
I think Azumah Nelson was greater. I think Nelson of 1985 beats any version of Sanchez.

Sanchez v Pedroza would have answered a lot of questions.

 

Definitely he has a bit of a 'cult following' though, there's a lot of nostalgia for that era nowadays, and his untimely death at the height of his prime cements his cult status.
So yeah, a bit overrated in some quarters.

 

I tend to think Sanchez got hit because he had some of that Muhammad Ali quality in him. Meaning he knew he could take the shots and would go ahead and absorb them for some rounds while doing his bricklayer job in there. He'd take a shot on the button that would do a lot of damage to other fighters but keep on doing what he wanted to do.

Not too many guys can do that and still have the fight going their way. It is different than a lose the battle and win the war type fight and usually they continue to win rounds but get tagged. Not hurt or shook but taking clean shots from formidable opponents. Hardly an asset you get to see often. Anyway, I always though Salvidor had that unique quality and the question would have been if he could have maintained that aspect to his game for another 5 or 10 years like Ali did. That part I am not convinced about---but he sure could with what we saw of him.

 

I think a big part of it is people overlooking his struggles during his title reign, like they never happened. He always seemed to have issues with slick boxers or tall ones; basically the guys who wouldn't let him fight his fight. Castillo, Ford, Caldwell, etc.

I think if the people who are guilty of overrating him were a little bit more realistic about his stylistic shortcomings, he'd be rated pretty fairly at featherweight. He did so much so well at featherweight, skill-wise and was such a calm, stoic operator with such a smooth style, that it probably doesn't even come into most's head that boxing with Sanchez was far more effective than trying to pressure him.

 

I hate to say it, because he’s among my absolute favorites, but, yes, I do think he tends to get overrated. Hear me out. His skills are incredible, he was a masterful counter attacking fighter. He used the strengths of attacking fighters against them and he also had such natural instincts from his feinting, to the way he moved in the ring and mixed his offense with defense in the heat of battle masterfully. He had an amazing brain. So his qualities might well be rated accordingly, but he wasn’t “perfect.” I’m ok with his difficult time with Castillo, because Castillo was a classy boxer, it was Sanchez’s first title defense, and despite the problems, he won clearly. The Ford fight is a little more troublesome as that was a fight that was about as close as it gets and Ford was a fairly mediocre fighter. All fighters have bad nights but what the fight showed, and it’s also consistent but to a lesser extent in the Cowdell fight, is that Sanchez had issues when he was forced to attack or when the opponent wasn’t coming to him. His incredible chin, skill, counterpunching, stamina etc; was perfect against the offensive juggernauts like Little Red & Gomez, and he’d beat them 10/10 but when forced to lead, it showed some deficiencies. All fighters have weaknesses though for the most part so not the end of the world but just worth pointing out to those who like to think he’s the greatest fighter ever created and had no weakness. I think most of those (and believe me, I have friends like this and see them online all the time) have only seen the Gomez, López, Nelson fights and highlights.

Now as to his placing in history. I think he’s a top 5 feather, in fact I place him 3 or 4. I see people say he’s the best ever and those folks are overrating him. If he’s the greatest at 126, then he’s a top 10 p4p ever and that’s not accurate but some claim it. He might be the most talented Mexican fighter ever but it’s basically impossible to justify his all-time placement ahead of Chavez & Olivares. Unfortunately due to his death we never saw if he’d reached his peak and we never saw the inevitable diminishment of skills that all fighters experience. Some get caught up in overrating those that die young. I operate a Latino Boxing History page on Facebook that’s got great members, and there’s many in there that say Sanchez is the greatest Latino, greatest Mexican etc; that’s proof that many do overrate him to me. You can say his skills are better than many, but can you honestly tell me he’s a greater overall fighter than Duran, Jofre, Monzon, Arguello, Chavez, C. Ortiz, Olivares, Gavilan, Napoles? There’s basically no case whatsoever. And what’s funny is, when I did my all-time Latino list I was laughed at, questioned that I don’t know ****, ridiculed that I placed him at #11. Now he’s one of my 4-5 favorite fighters ever but I’m not going to crown him for things he didn’t yet accomplish which isn’t his fault but it’s not fair to elevate him over guys who actually did more.

 

Where you meeting these people?

Sanchez’s resume stands up pretty danged well considering how short his career was and how young he died. You can’t look at a resume with two wins over Danny Lopez plus Wilfredo Gomez and Azumah Nelson (I don’t care how green he was) and not be impressed.

Is he above Sandy Saddler and Willie Pep at feather? No, but apart from those two I’d say he’s up there with anyone else based on the body of work (and how good he looks on film) to compare.

Now was he perfect? No, as noted there were styles that could give him problems and he sometimes was a bit neglectful with his defense.

The unknown is, of course, what happens had he not died. Does he stay at feather or move up? Does he flame out early like Pipino Cuevas and some other Mexican stars who turned pro early? That’s impossible to say.

 

I was given a lot of **** for suggesting that Shakur Stevenson might beat him, so I’m gonna go with yes.

 

Salvador Sanchez is definitely not overrated, you do not have to be a cheap mouthy imitation of Muhammad Ali or have to be a peak Mike Tyson imitation to be considered great. He was one of the few Mexican champions to move and box, many were slow methodical type fighters with a great left hook. Salvador used good head movement, fair footwork and countered very well. His counterpart WBA Champion Eusebio Pedroza although talented, was a dirty fighter at times when he was desperate, there is no class when fighting that type of fight. He was not a recognizable champion, who did he beat for his title, Cecilio Lastra? Sanchez defeated a more proven champion Danny Little Red Lopez, twice by TKO. Sanchez made more recognizable names in title defenses, sure he had difficulty with some. but he figured them out, won with class, he was very astute. Salvador fought in locations like Madison Square Garden. Wilfedo Gomez, Patrick Ford, Juan La Porte, Azumah Nelson were just a few names on his blotter of the 9 title defenses he had before his untimely death at the young age of 23. It is pure speculation on our part if he would have moved up and created his own legacy, we may never know the answer to the $64,000.00 dollar question.

 

No he's not overrated if you're judging him on his shortened career. I'd have loved to seen him move to lightweight and seen what he could do. I suspect as his physical advantage waned at higher weights his defense could be a liability . An Arguello Sanchez fight would have been one for the history books.

 

All men and women who die young are overrated to some extent...except for Jimi Hendrix.

James Dean? Horrible actor, horrrrrrible (in Canelo voice).
Jim Morrison? His "poetry" is laughable. The music of The Doors far outweighs his contributions to the group.
Janis Joplin? Listening to her sceams now are painful. She had a difficult life, but still.
Salvador Sanchez? Very, very good to excellent boxer who died too young to make into a boxing god.

 

I don't think struggling against certain fighters makes you any less great or overrated, if you go back in history and look at any of the all time greats. You'll find they all struggled against certain fighters that were bad style match ups, look at Henry Armstrong for example who's considered top 10 boxer of all time. He lost to Fritzie Zivic twice who isn't rated anywhere near him, do people hold that against Henry Armstrong when rating him ?

And the fact is despite Salvador Salvador struggling against some of them fighters, he still found a way to win which to me shows how great he is.

Also i just want to point out a few things, Patrick Ford was 5'10 with a 73 inch reach. So he was kind of a freak for a Featherweight, i can't think of many Featherweight's who were 5'10. I think quite a few Featherweights would of struggled against them attributes, and it also took a career best performance from Eusebio Pedroza to beat Ford, and the fight still went 13 rounds. I don't think going a combined 28 rounds against two top 10 Featherweights of all time makes you "Average" either.

As for people saying Azumah Nelson was "Green". But i'd like to ask out of top 10 Featherweights fighting at that time. How many would you pick to beat the Azumah Nelson that fought Salvador Sanchez ? Azumah Nelson may of not been at his absolute peak. But he was still a force to be reckoned with.

So no i don't think Salvador Sanchez was overrated, he was in his early 20s beating ATG's and some very solid tough contenders. And who's to say Salvador Sanchez wouldn't of got better ? he was still so young.

 

Salvador Sanchez is not overrated, he is disrepectful.
It can only be underestimated.