SANCHEZ Sanchez SANCHEZ 1982

Salvador Sanchez is the best counter puncher I’ve ever seen

 

I technically could/can fight with anyone; and trust me I would have a unique style! So I guess I am too as great a fighter who has ever lived...


Sanchez was superb, so at least show proper respect and critique him properly.

 

I love him. He’s one of my favorites.

 

Sal ALWAYS found a way to win. I rate him highly because of this.

 

He was well on his way to becoming top ten ATG...pound for pound. Had he lived, only guys like SRR, Armstrong, and Duran could have been spoken of in the same breath.

I remain astonished at the maturity of Sanchez's style. He was ring wise WAY beyond his years. Plus, watch how cool he was, he had a type of level-headedness that made him unstoppable as a boxer. And he sure knew how to finish someone, despite not being a particularly heavy puncher.

 

Excellent fighter!! Just think what he possibly could have accomplished had he not past away at such a young age. A fight with Arguello would have been one for the ages.

I truly believe his fight with Azumah Nelson helped make Azumah an all time great. Talk about a trial by fire for Nelson. His 13th fight as a pro he faces a beast like Sanchez.

 

Rare interview with Salvador Sanchez on June 2nd, 1982. Veronica Lajia was the interviewer.
Your privacy interests me much less than your world champion boxing ability. How do you prepare, how do you train a boxer?
- Do you want to know why I started boxing? My case is different from that of other boxers who enter this field only out of necessity, to earn a few pennies, their daily bread. I entered because I have always liked boxing.

Is your family rich?
. Not exactly ..... My mother is a housewife; my father sells building materials. As a child I was able to go to school, I studied until the third year of high school. When I entered the second year, I had been friends with José Sosa, a now retired boxer, for a long time. One day I told him that I aspired to be a boxer and he arranged a fight for me in the State of Mexico. To train I came to the city every day in order to do my practices in the disappeared Jordán Baths.

Did you know what those baths meant in the boxing world then?
- Of course. A guy who was very fond of boxing told me about that world, about great figures, about those bathrooms and all that. So, as I was saying, in the morning I studied and in the afternoon I came to train here. At around ten o'clock at night I returned home exhausted.

Who were your idols then?
- Mantequilla Napoles and Rubén Olivares. What I liked most about Mantequilla was his fine style, his intelligence in the ring, his punch. Rubén Olivares was the equivalent in another peso. The ease of "Púas" Olivares in the ring was prodigious. That man did not walk, he seemed to dance on the canvas, so harmonious were his movements.

From what age do you watch boxing fights?
- From a very young age, let's say that from Vicente Saldivar to here, I watched his fights on television. In Santiago Tianguistenco there weren't many, but Felipe Díaz's, owner of a canteen where we went to watch the Saturday fights, was within everyone's reach.

Did you learn anything concrete by watching Saldívar's fights?
-No, but I loved it because he had a very brave style. I met him later, when I also became a champion. It is a very nice coincidence and an honor, we could say, that the two of us have been represented by Juan Jose Torres Landa.

What, he only represents champions?
- Yes. Saldívar, Herrera, Romeo Anaya, Chucho Castillo and now his servant are there.

When you started boxing, did you imagine that you would be a world champion?
- No. I was fighting to earn money and get a truck of materials and work it on my own.

How long did it take to get to the top?
- Six years.

How do you define success?
- It is to feel fulfilled in the field where one works. It is a simple, small word, but achieving what it means requires many sacrifices; Sacrifices cement the path to success.

You have only lost one of his 46 fights. What did that experience mean to you?
- It was horrible, horrible ..... I felt disappointed by the judges. The fight was in Mazatlán and my rival was from there. I had won that fight on points, but the failure was local. If I had seen that I really had no faculties or was ill-prepared to win, I would not have minded that failure. But when the triumph was taken from me, for the reasons I am telling you, it hurt a lot.

Professionally, that failure didn't make me insecure. I capitalized on it: it gave me the opportunity to learn more so that experience is not repeated again. But I do not lose one thing from vitality: there is always a fighter who can be better than one: that is, there is always the possibility of a defeat.

I would like you to analyze your fight with "Rocky Garcia"
- I still cannot do it as objectively as I would like because I have not seen the video. The memory of my experience, in this case, allows me to say that my rival was very strong and was very well prepared. His physical condition is excellent. If he didn't have all those attributes, I wouldn't have endured the 15 rounds that the match lasted. I praise Rocky for his stamina, his condition, his professionalism.

The press alluded to a low blow, did you hit it or not?
- Yes, the press has talked a lot, but Rocky and I know the truth about that hit; We know I gave the liver a hook. He argued that it was a cheap blow. He did it to buy time and recover because the impact was tremendous. In his situation, maybe I would have done the same: anything to buy time.

Is it true that since television entered the boxing world, boxers are asked to lengthen the fight so that there is a show?
- It is not true. The fight can end in the first or last round, that depends on the boxers, how they are doing. I am slow because I am not explosive, I am not a striker nor do I have an amazing punch, enough to demolish my opponent with a single blow. My boxing consists in undermining my opponent, in progressively reducing his physical condition, until I defeat him. Sometimes, like Rocky Garcia, that takes me a long time.

Within a week he begins to prepare for his next fight.
- On June 24 I have to make the mandatory defense against Mario Miranda. Later, in a challenger position, I will fight Alexis Arguello. That will mark the pinnacle of my career. I admire and respect Alexis because he is a person who prepares very well and is very intelligent, which means that he knows when to throw a blow, how to receive it and how to link a quick response. Needless to say, I hope to win.

Salvador Sánchez is and will be a great champion, but we are all exposed to the possibility of failure, what do you think of this?
- There has to be a boxer who defeats me because he is better than me. But that is not a failure but something logical. For me to fail is to break one's work out of apathy, lack of discipline, irresponsibility.

When will your greatest moment of your career live?
- When I face Alexis Arguello. If I defeat him, I will have beaten the three best fighters of the decade in their respective divisions: Danny López, Wilfredo Gómez and Alexis Arguello. That will be a record.

Salvador Sánchez lives in the ring today. Does he aspire to last in history?
- Of course. I want to. over the years, people see my name and remember who I was. Today I want to know who I am.

 

If you want

 

Me too, Chris

 

Sanchez’s Korean cousin Chang-Jung-Koo is a great fighter too.

 

I wished he would have stated his opinion of th Juan Escobar draw. Always wondered why he didn't rematch him.

 

I noticed that, he could really mess up your face

 

He admitted that he got lucky and probably didn’t deserve a draw.