Gone Before Their Time: Boxing’s Great Tragedies Part I
May 25, 2004
By Craig Medaris
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." -Albert Pike
The life of a boxer is a tough one. Nothing comes easy in this sport and you would be hard pressed to find a fighter alive today who would disagree.
These are men who make the choice to put their bodies through the toughest of tests. The commitment to put one’s body through the sort of physical and emotional rigor required to succeed in the sport is nearly incomprehensible to most fans. Yet the boxer accepts the torture and pain as simply a step along the road to the final goal – a championship.
The men that make it to the top are not always the ones who work the hardest, who are the strongest, the ones with the hardest punch or even the ones with the most talent; they just have the right combination of all of those things. There is no set formula or blueprint – some fighters just make it, some don’t.
Life is just like that. You might be born into wealth and lose it all overnight. But some people work hard and do their best for their entire life and succeed like they wanted to, only to get the shaft from the angel of death and die in the prime of their life.
The parallels between a tough working life and boxing are many. For the sake of this article, we are going to concentrate on perhaps the cruelest fate that a boxer (and indeed anyone) can suffer; being cut down in your prime.
Boxing history is filled with great memories. Jack Johnson thumbing his nose at white America, Sugar Ray Leonard coming out of retirement and defeating Marvin Hagler or Muhammad Ali defying logical thought, knocking out George Foreman and proving once and for all, that he is “The Greatest”. The sport of boxing has provided us with images, legends and characters that shall never be forgotten. Great men do great things. Yet sometimes, great men are not afforded that possibility.
The man at the center of this piece is one of the most entertaining and popular fighters that the boxing rich country of Mexico has ever produced; the incredibly gifted featherweight champion Salvador Sanchez. This is my tribute to a man who is undoubtedly one of the sport’s true greats.
Salvador Sanchez:
The parents of Salvador Sanchez were the kind of people that worked hard for everything they ever received. Earning their living by farming, Salvador had the determined and hardworking instincts needed for success as a boxer instilled into him at an early age. Growing up on a farm in the small town of Tianguistenco, Sanchez didn’t have the kind of advantages of sophisticated training and gyms that his more affluent peers experienced, but his natural ability would not go unnoticed.
After a brief amatuer career, Salvador would turn pro in 1975 at the tender age of sixteen. Over his first two years, Sanchez amassed an undefeated record of eighteen wins, with seventeen wins coming by way of knockout. At this stage of his career, he was still rough around the edges, slowly learning his craft and was about to suffer what become his only professional setback.
The name of Antonio Becerra often comes up during trivia discussions as the answer to the question; “Who was the only man to ever defeat Salvador Sanchez?” Becerra’s defeat of Sanchez proved not only to be the last time that Sanchez would suffer defeat, but it would also be the first time that Salvador was to be knocked down. Even after being on the mat, Sanchez would rise and give forth his best effort, losing narrowly via a split decision the way of the champion, Becerra. While this was a setback, there was still a great deal that Sanchez could take from this defeat.
Two fights later, Sanchez would experience the one fight which, more than any other, helped to shape the great fighter he was to become. Fighting outside of his homeland for the very first time, at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, Salvador was involved in a life and death struggle with Juan Escobar. Sanchez would visit the canvas in this fight and in fact, was lucky to last the final round. While he escaped with a draw, this would be the last blemish Sanchez would allow to be inflicted on his record. For the rest of his life, Sanchez enjoyed professional perfection.
Defending WBC featherweight champion Danny Lopez found out the hard way what that perfection felt like when he took a beating at the hands of Sanchez as he lost the title, after 13 one-sided rounds. Perhaps Danny had momentarily forgotten what had happened to him that night, because four months later, Sanchez would repeat the victory, with Lopez lasting just one round longer. The two destructions of Lopez launched Sanchez and boxing fans around the world began to realize what the Mexican’s fans already knew – he was special.
Over the course of the following year, Sanchez racked up 3 more defenses of his title before opportunity came knocking. The face of opportunity was Wilfredo Gomez, the undefeated junior featherweight champion from Puerto Rico. The man who was regarded as the most devastating puncher in the sport, who brought with him a record of 32 wins, no losses, one draw and every one of those wins coming by way of knockout. The man, who was universally feared, was installed as a heavy favorite to make easy work of Sanchez. This would turn out to be Salvador’s finest night in the ring.
The fearsome Gomez was put down early in the opening round and to the surprise of those watching, Sanchez tore into his hurt opponent with amazing ferocity. Gomez was beat from pillar to post over the course of the first three minutes and that immediately set the tone for the fight. Gomez managed to last seven more rounds, and actually had his moments in the fight, but if you noticed the look on each man’s face, you already knew how this was to end. By the time Gomez succumbed, he had suffered a terrible beating and with that unforgettable performance, Sanchez was now a certifiable star.
Eleven months later he would be fighting on the world’s biggest stage; New York City’s Madison Square Garden against a little known challenger by the name of Azumah Nelson. This would turn out to be his final appearance in the squared circle that he had made his own.
We all know the fighter Nelson turned out to be. He is a proud member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, the same man who effectively ended the great careers of Jeff Fenech and Gomez. But going into their July, 1982 battle, Nelson was just another undefeated fighter with little experience against the very best. What we know now about Nelson makes the performance of Sanchez even more special.
From the opening bell, the eager Nelson launched a full-blooded assault on the ever cool Sanchez. Ducking and weaving away from the swinging left hooks and booming right hands Nelson threw at him, Sanchez returned fire with his own counters, showing off the hand speed and accuracy that helped make him the great fighter he was. Nelson was landing, though, and repeatedly; yet each time Azumah would land a flush left hand, instead of crumbling, Sanchez just stared back at the attacking Nelson and continued fighting.
As the rounds progressed, so did the dominance that Sanchez began to exert over the gutsy Ghanaian warrior. Slowly but surely, as Salvador’s quick hands and accurate punches continually found their mark, Nelson wilted and was finally stopped in the fifteenth and final round. Sanchez had just recorded his 44th victory and at the age of twenty-three; he was on the course to achieving boxing immortality.
Sadly, unlike boxing, immortality in life is not achievable and we were tragically reminded of this just three weeks after the victory over Nelson. Early on the morning of August the 12th, 1982, while busy training for a rematch with Juan La Porte, the car Sanchez was driving crashed, taking Salvador’s life. So quickly had he became a star and yet so quickly the star had fallen.
The news of Sanchez’s death came as a great shock and as word spread there was a feeling of deepest sorrow; not only in the boxing world, but across all of Latin America. The hero to so many had been taken away after only twenty-three years of life.
The nation of Mexico has produced some of the finest fighters boxing has ever seen. From the knockout artistry of Carlos Zarate and Ruben Olivares, the pinpoint accuracy and smoothness of Ricardo Lopez or the seemingly unbeatable Julio Cesar Chavez. Truly Mexico has a great history as a fighting nation. Yet perhaps this one man could be considered above all others.
While Zarate was deadly, Olivares ferocious, Lopez brilliant and Chavez invincible, Salvador Sanchez was quite simply unforgettable. When you sat down to watch Sanchez fight, you didn’t sit down to watch a good fight; you were watching true greatness at work. Afterwards, you would sit back and marvel at what you had just witnessed. How could this small, 126 pound man, with a face so innocent it would not look out of place on a young boy, be so calculating, so talented, so calm and quite frankly, so damn good?
That was always the charm with Salvador. He was the sort of fighter you could land your best shot on - feel it right up your arm - only to focus your eyes back upon him and see that not only has his facial expression not changed, but there was a volley of punches coming back at you. Salvador Sanchez, in full flight, looked as though he was born to greatness. A man whose artistry and talents made you sit up and admire his work. As fluid and natural looking a fighter as there ever was, Salvador Sanchez was truly unforgettable.
Salvador Sanchez
1959-1982
Career record: 44 wins (32KOs), 1 defeat and 1 draw
