Glory Cut Short: The Brief Career of Mexican Boxer Salvador Sanchez

At times, it must have seemed that Mexican legend Salvador Sanchez was brought into this world for the ring. He was born in January 1959 in Tianguistenco, Mexico. Tianguistenco is a popular training site for Mexican boxers because of its vicinity to Mexico City and its high altitude. The boy must have had glowing talent, because even in that boxing town, when he laced up the gloves he attracted the immediate attention of trainer Augustin Palacios. With almost no amateur experience and only 16 years old, Sanchez began his career as a professional boxer, a career that would end prematurely but leave him a Mexican legend in his own time.

Between 1975 and 1977, Sanchez racked up an 18-0 record with 17 KOs before challenging for the vacant Mexican bantamweight (118lbs) title. However, the 18 year old Sanchez was over-reaching in his first shot at a national championship. His record looked impressive on paper, but most of his opponents had been utter novices; all but two had records of 4 fights or less. His opponent, the more experienced Antonio Becerra, dropped Sanchez in the first round en route to winning a Split Decision. The fight is noteworthy because it was the first and last time Sanchez would lose a fight.

Salvador "Sal" Sanchez was 5'7" with a 67" reach. He was easily identified with his head of thick, curly black hair. His height made him tall and lanky for a featherweight, but with a merely average reach. While he had above average hitting power, but was a volume shooter rather than a puncher, throwing punches in bunches. He also combined a solid chin with a talent for elusive slipping. Sanchez might very well have had the best ability for ducking shots of any fighter to ever come out of Mexico. He combined slick moves with passion and fire, and his mix of talents made him a dangerous man to make a mistake around. If you missed Salvador Sanchez, more than likely you would pay for it by eating 3 or 4 punches in return.

Rising from Obscurity

After the loss to Becerra, Sanchez went back to work. In 1978, he hit a road bump in the form of Juan Escobar, a Tijuana southpaw. In his first fight in the United States, Sanchez was sent to the canvas in the 5th Round, and almost knocked down again in the 10th after catching a hard left to the head. Sanchez hung on to Escobar for dear life, preventing his fellow Mexican from finishing him off. The fight was ruled a draw, and it was not a prominent start to building a reputation for an unknown Mexican boxer. Sanchez kept working, splitting his time mostly between bouts in Mexico and Texas, running up a 13-0 record with 10 KOs, including a knockout of the father of the famous Felix "Tito" Trinidad in 1979.

In February 1980, Sanchez got his first shot at a world title when he was matched with hard-punching, rangy WBC featherweight (126lbs) champion, 42-3 Danny "Little Red" Lopez. Sanchez was such an unknown the local papers dubbed the bout "Little Red vs. Little Known." The "little known" Sanchez shocked the world by handing Lopez a beating, as he repeatedly staggered the champion with his large volume of power shots. In the early rounds, Sanchez boxed his man, using his elusiveness to pick counter-punching combinations off the grizzled veteran Lopez. By the middle of the fight, Sanchez felt confident enough to hit the trenches, standing toe-to-toe with the fearsome banger Lopez, and getting the better of the exchanges. By the later rounds, Sanchez's conditioning asserted itself, as he sustained his high work rate and ground Lopez down. By the end, the champion's face was busted up, with his left eye swollen shut, and his body weary. In the 13th, Sanchez landed a strong right-left combo that sent Lopez backpedaling, with Sanchez following him behind a volley of the 1-2s until Lopez hits the ropes. Sanchez switches to the right cross-left uppercut, pounding Lopez until the referee intervened and stopped the fight. The unheralded Sanchez had won the title in a thrilling, action-packed upset bout.

World Title Reign

In Sanchez's first defense of his new WBC title, he fought Ruben Castillo, who had beaten Juan Escobar and whose only loss at that time was to the great Alexis Arguello, and won a clean points decision. He then met Danny Lopez in a rematch in Las Vegas. Lopez was not deterred by his previous encounter with Sanchez. He came on the entire fight, refusing to take a single step backwards, and looking to land his big hammer of a right hand. He improved on his performance in the sense that he did, in fact, land that punch more often than before. However, Sanchez didn't blink, continued to make Lopez miss, and landed quick, stinging combinations in counter. As in the first bout, Lopez finally tired, and in the 14th Round he once again crumbled before a Sanchez barrage. He closed out 1980 by defending his title for the 3rd and 4th times, winning decisions against undefeated Patrick Ford and future world champion Juan La Porte. Sanchez vs. La Porte was a real barn burner, with the gutsy but inexperienced La Porte struggling hard to match Sanchez blow for rapid-fire blow. The two men became close friends after the bout; after Sanchez's death, it was Juan La Porte who won his vacant title.

He opened 1981 with a pair of defenses against journeymen, before he climbed in the ring for his next classic encounter. In August 1981, Salvador Sanchez fought Wilfredo Gomez in Ceasar's Palace, Las Vegas. Gomez was undefeated and the WBC super bantamweight (122lbs) champion, and with 13 defenses at that weight had literally gouged a hole through the division. He was now moving up to 126lbs and had his sights set squarely on Sanchez. Gomez's power was awesome, he was a solid boxer, had a tough chin, he was a savvy ring general, and would retire having won world titles at 122lbs, 126lbs, and 130lbs. Furthermore, the contrast in personalities could not be greater. Gomez was a brash trash-talker; Sanchez was a polite and reserved young man. Gomez predicted an early knockout and derided Sanchez's masculinity whenever a microphone or reporter was present. In the days leading up to the fight, there were ugly scrapes between the men's corner staff. The betting was 2-1 against Sanchez. "Sal" ate up the insults, trained harder, and waited for his chance to repay the insults he endured in the ring.

From the early rounds, it was clear that Gomez actually believed all his trash-talk of Sanchez. He had clearly under-trained. Sanchez knocked him down in the first, and then went on to overwhelm the betting favorite with a slick, sustained attack. Going into the 8th, both Gomez's eyes were almost closed up, set in a face distorted with swelling. Sanchez nailed Gomez a crushing right hand, staggering him, and then followed up by pounding him down with a barrage of left hooks and chopping rights. Gomez got back to his feet, but the referee stopped the fight. Sanchez had kept his title and sent his rival packing back to 122lbs, and in the process secured his fame in America. He rounded out 1981 a points win over a solid British journeyman.

His newfound fame earned Sanchez a dividend in 1982: his title defense against the journeyman Jorge Garcia was the first featherweight bout ever televised on HBO. Later that year "Sal" was scheduled to take on a fighter who was much like himself before the first Lopez bout: the 13-0 Ghanaian boxer Azumah "The Zoom" Nelson. Then an unknown fighter from Africa, the future legend gave Sanchez all he could handle. Both fighters let their fists fly from the outside, a truly stunning visual spectacle, with each bomb clearly visible from a distance and at most angles. For the first half of the fight, Nelson was rocked by Sanchez hooks, but bit by bit he was finding his way and returning his own. Sanchez knocked Nelson down in the 7th, but the game African got right back up and went right back to work, changing nothing in his game plan. Going into the 15th and final round of this trench war, Sanchez found Nelson with right-left hook combination and sent him sprawling into a corner. Nelson got to his feet, but Sanchez pounced on him and finished the gallant African warrior.

The 15th and final Round was a display of Sanchez's greatness. Both men were utterly exhausted, but Sanchez was ahead on points and could have comfortably coasted to a points win. Instead, he went out looking for the knockout, and he got it. For his part, Nelson was established as a featherweight force in defeat, and would go on to become the greatest boxer ever produced by the continent of Africa.

Tragic Death and Legacy

Sanchez was training for a rematch with Juan La Porte when he was killed in a car crash, enjoying his new Porsche. He was only 23, and could have expected at least half a dozen solid years in his career. After La Porte, there was talk of either a rematch with Wilfredo Gomez or a challenge of lightweight champion Alexis Arguello's title. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991.

In 2003, the alternative folk-rockers Sun Kil Moon (Mark Kozalek's project following Red House Painters) dedicated two songs on the album "Ghosts of the Great Highway" to Sanchez. Salvador Sanchez remains arguably the most talked about "what if" of boxing.

Sources: Old fight footage on YouTube; HBO; IBHOF; The Ring; boxrec.com