What can you tell me about Vicente Saldivar?

I'm sure there are others who can tell you more about him but based on what I've seen he was a very patient pressure fighter who was adept at breaking down opponents over the 15 round distance. He had one of the best straight left hands on a southpaw and was a good combination puncher also. The beating he handed out to Sugar Ramos may have been his best or atleast his most active performance.

 

More or less what A said.

I'd just add he was more or less a complete boxer-puncher, one that generally wasted very little motion until it was time to really open up with his punches on a hurt opponent.

Some really talented fighters like Ramos, Winstone and Famechon were unlucky to be around at the same time as him.

 

Nah, no durable but limited slugger would have defeated fighters like Ramos and Winstone.Probably a biased Brit, or vulgar simpleton with no appreciation of the lighter weights or technical aspects of boxing that wrote it.Or PowerPuncher.


I'd think of Saldivar in the same broad category of well-schooled mexican boxer-punchers like Zarate, Barrera, Pintor, Chavez etc...

 

I think one could easily mistake him for a limited slugger when first taking a look at him. I can't say I agree with this view at all but Saldivar is not the easiest fighter to get into. It's much like when some young fans think that Duran was nothing but a face first brawler.

Saldivar was patient and he put on pressure at all times although he was not as aggressive as someone like Henry Armstrong or Joe Frazier, far from it. He would take his time and more often than not got to his opponents before 15 rounds had passed.

 

he's been described as a mirco version of rocky marciano. is this an accurate depiction? Like the TS i have very limited info on him and have seen very little footage

 

I wouldn't say he had too many similarities with Marciano.

Here's some footage of him:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5iBjEAD8aI[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwT6dAv0WDo[/ame]

 

:goodthanks

 

It's true that saldivar isn't a flashy fighter(nor was winstone incidentally), nor necessarily someone who is going to be instantly impressive for everybody, but i thinkmost will start to appreciate the precision and power of his style after a few fights.

 

Hes just a patient boxer-puncher who exerts alot of pressure of the distance of a fight. The last 5 rounds of a fight was where Saldivar came alive as his early body work and accurate precise punching begins to take its toll as he upped his pace.

Absoloute fantastic fighter.

 

He was the best FW of the '60s, which on the whole is a very underrated era. Perhaps no single one of his opponents was a spectacular ATG FW, but the era was one of the most consistently solid and deep in the history of that weight class. From the early/mid '60s until the end of his career in the early '70s, virtually every fighter Saldivar fought was a noteworthy contender or titleholder of some kind.

As has been said, he was a tough and skilled southpaw technician, adept at picking off punches and countering with his straight left. For the most part, his performances were rather moderate-paced and methodical, but as TheGreatA said the fight with Ramos showed he could really step it up when needed.

A brief synopsis of his career:
Saldivar came out of semi-obscurity in Mexico in the early '60s and upset the well regarded #1 FW contender Ismael Laguna, who went on to upset Carlos Ortiz for the LW title a year or so later. That earned Saldivar a shot at the very highly regarded, hard-hitting FW champ Sugar Ramos (a HOFer). Ramos was one of the biggest-looking, strongest, and most powerful FWs ever, and he came out unloading bombs on Saldivar in his customary manner. Saldivar never wavered however, and kept picking off Ramos' big punches and countering with short, straight left hands to Ramos' face again and again. Finally, by the late rounds, Saldivar's strategy had begun to pay off, as Ramos' face was a mass of blood and swelling. Around the 12th round, Saldivar backed him into a corner and wailed away at him, and his corner stopped the fight between rounds.

Saldivar made several successful defenses of in first title reign, including a noteworthy trilogy vs. future champ Howard Winstone (all won by Saldivar) and a 2-round blowout of Floyd Robertson, who had been considered by some as the "uncrowned champion" following a controversial decision loss to Sugar Ramos back during his reign. Saldivar somewhat surprisingly retired following his 3rd win over Winstone, saying that he felt the wars had taken a toll on himself and that there were no more challenges out there for him. A few years later, he returned to the ring seeking to regain his former title. In his very first fight back, he took on Jose Legra, who had been one of the fighters to win the FW title in his absence. Legra floored Saldivar early, but Saldivar battled back to get the decision and earn a shot at FW champ Johnny Famechon. In a competitive semi-tactical fight, Saldivar scored a knockdown and took a close, perhaps somewhat debatable decision over Famechon to regain the title. In his first defense, however, Saldivar was surprisingly stopped (for the first time in his career) by the unheralded Kuniaki Shibata. It was a competitive fight, but Shibata essentially out-Saldivar'ed Saldivar, aggressively countering him and landing quicker, sharper punches. Saldivar appeared to be showing the wear and tear of his long career and busted up, and the fight was stopped in the corner around the 13th or 14th round.

Saldivar was only semi-active for the remainder of his career. He eventually came back to score a good win over respected perennial contender Frankie Crawford, and after another year or so layoff he came back to challenge newly crowned FW champ Eder Jofre. This was a fight that was lined up to happen back in the mid '60s, when Jofre was the bantam champ, but Jofre's upset loss to Fighting Harada spoiled it. Now instead of a big megafight in their primes they met as "shot" veterans, but Jofre still proved to have too many guns for Saldivar and stopped him in just 4 rounds. Saldivar never fought again. He ultimately died from a heart attack I believe, at a surprisingly young age of around 42.

 

Incidentally, a sh!tload of Saldivar's fights are on YT.

-Ramos
-Winstone (all three)
-Raul Rojas
-Mitsonuri Seki (both fights)
-Famechon
-Shibata

Either the full fights or extended highlights.