In Memory Of Salvador Sanchez

Yesterday would have marked the 51st birthday of Mexican legend Salvador Sanchez so in honour of the Boxing Hall of Famer I am reposting this from the old blog:

Salvador Sanchez started boxing professionally at a young age after an amateur boxing career that supposedly spanned only 4 fights. Despite his young age he quickly racked up victories over tough Mexican opposition only coming unstuck when the experienced Antonio Becerra defeated him for the vacant Mexican bantam weight title, the only defeat he would suffer in his celebrated career.
Despite this defeat Sanchez kept on moving forward, he went up in weight to feather weight where he defeated Felix Trinidad Sr, Puerto Rican feather weight champion and father of Puerto Rican legend Felix Trinidad Jr, as he edged closer to a world title shot. On February 2nd 1980 this chance came against, Danny ‘Little Red’ Lopez.

Lopez was extremely confident in his abilities and tough to beat but this did not deter Sanchez and he knocked Lopez out in the 13th round. Sanchez defended his title against Ruben Castillo in a 15 round unanimous decision before he faced Lopez in a rematch. Lopez claimed that Sanchez had benefitted from beginner’s luck so Sanchez went about disproving this theory taking an extra round to dispatch of Lopez by TKO in June of the same year.
Sanchez defended his title four more times including a unanimous decision over future champion Juan La Porte before he faced Wilfredo ‘Bazooka’ Gomez in the biggest bout of his career.
Gomez was an undefeated knockout specialist from Puerto Rico had dominated the super bantam weight division, his victims included undefeated at the time, Carlos Zarate who he had stopped in 5 rounds. He moved up in weight to face Sanchez in August 1981 and sparks flew as the two faced off.

Sanchez started fast and dropped Gomez within 40 seconds but Gomez rallied back to take the second round. Gomez’s eyes began to swell in the third round and Sanchez began to target the affected area to maximise the damage. With the weight of Puerto Rico on his shoulder’s Gomez fought back to take the 5th round and had Sanchez hurt on the ropes in the 6th yet by this time his left eye was badly swollen and his right was closed. Sanchez sensed the weakness and battered Gomez in round 7. This was a precursor to round 8 as Sanchez drove a near blind Gomez onto the ropes and landed a combination that
nearly drove a sagging Gomez out of the ring. Referee Carlos Padilla had seen enough calling off the fight and handing Sanchez the 8th round knockout.
Gomez was the betting favourite in the lead up to the fight so his victory was seen as somewhat of an upset. It catapulted Sanchez from obscurity to stardom amongst Mexican and international boxing fans alike.
Sanchez would fight three more times including a war with an unknown Azumah Nelson in July 1982. The fight was a war that ended in the 15th round when Sanchez almost knocked Nelson out of the ring and caused referee Tony Perez to stop the fight.

At the time of his death in 1982, Sanchez was in training for a September rematch with La Porte. There were rumours abound that he would face Gomez in a rematch or move up in weight to face the light weight champion of the world Alexis Arguello. Sadly neither materialised.

Sanchez died as feather weight champion and had shared the 1981 Ring Magazine ‘Fighter of The Year’ award with Sugar Ray Leonard. More importantly he had carved out a legacy for himself and was recognised as Mexico’s greatest ever champion.
When discussed today Sanchez’s name will always be mentioned amongst the best featherweights like Willie Pep and Kid Chocolate.
The real shame lies in that at the tender age of 23, despite having had 44 bouts, he had much more ahead of him.

Knockout Kings – Earnie Shavers

The ‘Black Destroyer’ was ranked at 10 in The Ring Magazine’s ‘100 Greatest Punchers of all time’ and it’s not hard to see why. Shavers was a heavy-handed stalker and after rattling Muhammad Ali, Ali would state Shavers hit him so hard “it shook my kinfolk back in Africa”.

Finishing his career in 1995, of his 74 wins 68 came by knockout, an indication of how hard this heavyweight hit.

Knockout Kings: Julian Jackson

Back when I used to think boxing was all about knocking people out Julian Jackson intrigued me. He seemed to have paralysing punching power which was always good to watch on YouTube if I had a good few minutes to spare.

If you don’t know of him, I present to you Pound 4 Pound one of the hardest punchers ever to put on a pair of gloves.

Gamboa and Lopez win in style

Yuriorkis Gamboa and JuanMa Lopez continued on the path to a future showdown as both won their fights in impressive fashion.

Gamboa taking on Rogers Mtagwa, ended his bout in the second round after flooring the game Tanzanian three times (once in the first round, twice in the second). The victory is even more impressive as Mtagwa had given Lopez, who would fight later that night on the same card, nightmares when the fought last year.

Gamboa’s speed and power was clear for all to see as he dominated Mtagwa forcing the refeere to call the bout off.

Then in the next fight JuanMa Lopez, making his first appearance at featherweight, took on Steve Luevano for his WBO belt.

They started the fight boxing, trading jabs, but Lopez’s punches always seemed to be having the greater effect. Whilst Lopez focused on the head, Luevano worked the body clearly looking to tire out the young star. In the 3rd they began trading blows, with Lopez working combinations with both hands. Luevano stood his ground but still didn’t trouble Lopez.

Lopez took control of the fight in the 4th and although Luevano tried to turn it into an in fight in the 5th, Lopez refused to loosen his grip. In the 6th Luevano’s eye began to swell and Lopez ended it in the 7th with a flurry of hard punches.

Starting with a hard uppercut that staggered the defending champion, Lopez pounced and landed hard punches to Luevano’s head finally sending him down with a chopping right.

Although Luevano rose before the 10 count he was in no fit shape to continue and the ref stopped it.

Although Gamboa’s victory may have been more pleasing to the eye, Lopez was impressive for me. Fighting in a new weight class against a tougher opponent he boxed and fought well. The fight was also an indicator that he will continue to carry his power at this new weight.

Pacquiao Grilled On Blood Testing

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Many of you may know Brian Kenny from his interview with Floyd Mayweather Jr prior to his Juan Manuel Marquez fight. He is very direct with his questioning and here he does the same to Manny Pacquiao regarding the blood testing that saw his fight with Floyd Mayweather scrapped.

To me Pacquiao’s answers were weak but form your own opinion.

Berto/Mosley off

Well if you thought this new year could not possibly get any worse, it has!

The Shane Mosley/Andre Berto unification bout scheduled for January 30th has been called off. Now before there are any calls of this guy ducked that guy there is a perfectly good reason.

Berto, who many of you will know is from Haiti and following the earthquake that occurred last week had been unable to get into contact with family members back in the country. So today he made this statement,

Since the 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti on Tuesday evening, I have been focusing on my family and the Haitian people who are facing an inconceivable battle for survival while still trying to continue to prepare for an opportunity I have dreamt of since childhood.  I lost several family members to the earthquake and after two days without word, was relieved to learn that my sister, Naomi and her daughter, Jessica survived, but were left homeless. I have seen the pain in my parents’ eyes as they attempt to understand what has happened to our homeland and recognize a place they once called home.

As a result of this disaster, I am mentally and physically exhausted and therefore I have no choice but to withdraw from my bout on January 30.

Throughout the past six days, I have received an incredible outpouring of support, and I sincerely appreciate everyone’s prayers for the people of Haiti. I hope that everyone will continue to keep the Haitian people in their thoughts and prayers as we work to rebuild this proud nation.  The rebuilding of Haiti is not something that will happen overnight, but I am fully dedicated to helping the Haitian people recover from this catastrophic event.

Well now that fight is put paid to, Mayweather could now have a dance partner for his March 13th date?!

Hatton Vs Khan?

Last week when Ricky Hatton announced he would be making a comeback to boxing I thought he would probably fight some mid level fighter go out on a win and ride off into the sunset. Yet things at 140 pounds have just spiced up for him.

Yesterday (Sunday) Amir Khan announced he had signed a 3 fight deal with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. Now this could mean that the much touted British super fight between Khan and Hatton could actually take place.

Hatton had vowed to never work with his and Khan’s former promoter Frank Warren again so now Khan is promoted by Golden Boy, who also promote him, a deal between him and the WBA 140 pound champion could take place.

Khan is on somewhat of a hot streak at the moment with 4 wins on the bounce the last being a 76 second destruction of Dimitry Salita whilst Hatton has not fought since being iced by Manny Pacquiao last May.

If the fight was to take place, I personally think Hatton would need a tune up rather than jump straight into the fight which would mean he would fight more than the 1 time he had looked to.

Either way Khan has a good number of mid to top level fighter gunning for him so expect to see some solid fights in the 3 fight deal he has signed with GBP.

Pacquiao/Clottey preview

This is shaping up to be a decent fight and card in general. Clottey is tough as hell and wont be giving anything away to Pac. So here’s another GP vid to promote the bout.

If you don’t know the circumstances around what Clottey is doing at the 45 second mark, your life is lacking a little something!

Hatton Announces Ring Return In 2010

Ricky Hatton (45-2-0) who was last seen laid out unconscious after losing his junior welterweight title to Manny Pacquiao, has announced he will fight again this year.

Hatton has flirted with a return after the devastating kayo in May last year but only today, speaking with Hatton TV, has the Englishman confirmed it. No opponent or site for the return has been named as yet and he claims he will speak to Sky about dates before anything is set in stone.

Personally I think this is a bad idea as I doubt he can be the force he was at either junior welter or welterweight.

It’s been said a million times but all the weight he puts on then sheds between fights can’t be good for him and the kayo last May was pretty horrible to watch, Hatton is a nice guy so nobody wants to see that happen again.

Taylor pulls out of the ‘Super Six’

Taylor after being stopped by Abraham in October

Having been knocked out in spectacular fashion in 3 of his last 5 fights, former middleweight world champion Jermain Taylor (28-4-1) has decided to remove himself from Showtime’s ‘Super Six’ super middleweight tournament.

Taylor, who was hospitalised after Arthur Abraham knocked him out in the dying moments of their October bout, had stated he would stay in the competition causing his promoter Lou DiBella to sever working ties, but today he announced his decision to step out.

It is not known if he is retiring fully or just leaving the tournament but following the devestating manner of his recent losses it is hoped by all involved with him and fans alike that he will call time on his career.

It is thought that the winner of the Allan Green/Saiko Biko bout next month will assume Taylor’s place.