Quotes from September 1990's Ring magazine: Murray Goodman (Writer and Boxing Publicist) "Saddler did not wait for openings; he went to you and made his openings. Sanchez would box him, he had a great jab. It would be a long fight, you don't knock Sanchez out. Saddler by decision" Willie O'Neill (Trainer and boxing historian) "It would be a good fight, a boxer-puncher match up. Both were tall, but Saddler was taller and a strong son of a gun. Sanchez was never kayoed, so I take Saddler by decision" Bob Sherrick (Boxing historian and fight film collector) "No contest. I see Saddler backing Sanchez up in a couple of feeling out rounds and then catching him on the inside with tough, short punches and taking him out. I don't see it going more than five rounds." So what is your take?
Sanchez needed a few more quality fights to really judge him. Saddler could be beaten.....but you had to be really dirty to do it.
I saw Saddler fight a few times...He was a tall, wiry,and cruel puncher.. I love the fighters of the 1940s, but in this case I see Sanchez by being very busy, winning a decision...Close... But if Sandy Saddler fought Arguello in prime I pick Alexis by late stoppage...Saddler was strong, but easy to hit, and Arguello was a miniature Joe Louis in punching power and style...Arguello stops Saddler I believe....
I feel people go too far with this Sanchez is unproven business. He went into championship rounds twice with the deadly little red lopez and stopped him there both times. He was the first to beat(and finish) the monster puncher and 122lb king, Gomez. And also the first to beat(and finish) a very game and great himself, Azumah Nelson. Saddler's game would be to rough this man up? Not a chance. Sanchez was an unstoppable force
Nelson went into the Sanchez fight as an relatively unknown novice. Sanchez got a hell of a lot of grief for struggling with him, until three weeks later...
Well theres two ways you can look at that. One, that he was green. And two, that Sanchez was not at all aware of the ATG talent he was about to face.
My point is nearly 28 years of hindsight and a tragic early death go into that statement. Sanchez was considered brilliant but flaky, sometimes struggling with fighters he seemingly should of outclassed. In the fights that mattered, Saddler was rarely off.
Neither was Sal, who tended to perform to the expected level of his competition. Nelson was an upstart, yet Sanchez still stopped him in a situation where the major story during the three weeks afterward was about how lousy he felt. But Lopez and Gomez mattered very much, and Sal was brilliant.