The Legend Who Never Reached His Real Prime - Salvador Sanchez Biography and Boxing Breakdown
Easily one of the greatest. And a true shame when he passed. This man went through a complete fight without ever breathing hard. His stamina was superhuman. Who am I talking about? Salvador Sanchez of course.
Short Introduction
Considered by many as one of the greatest boxers to ever step into the ring, Salvador Sanchez left an indelible mark on the world of boxing before his tragic passing.
His extraordinary stamina and superhuman abilities were legendary, with tales of him effortlessly enduring complete fights without breaking a sweat.
Today, we pay tribute to the remarkable career of Salvador Sanchez, a true icon of the sport.
Who is Salvador Sanchez?
Salvador "Sal" Sánchez Narváez (January 26, 1959 – August 12, 1982) was a Mexican professional boxer and the featherweight champion from 1980 to 1982.
What sets him apart from other champions is that he faced every skilled fighter in his weightclass of his time, including former champions and future world titleholders at a young age.
How it began
Sánchez started his professional career at bantamweight at the age of 16.
After dozens of professional fights in bantamweight, he moved up to featherweight, where he gained the start of his popularity after being crowned the Featherweight Champion at the age of 21 and defeating accomplished fighters in his era.
He showcased his absolute reign as the featherweight champion, toppling a multitude of former and future World Champions in his relentless pursuit of greatness and defended his title 9 times.
How it ended
Sánchez died at the age of 23 on August 12, 1982, in a car accident from Querétaro to San Luis Potosí.
Final Words
It's crazy how good this guy was. He died at just 23 years old and was getting better with each fight!
He was a terrific counter puncher, had terrific stamina, had a chin made of steel, and a heart of a lion.
Salvador Sanchez is one of the most accomplished complete boxers to have ever graced the square ring.
It is unfortunate that we never ever got to see him reach his full potential. If it wasn't for that car crash he'd probably be the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time).
Salvador Sanchez Boxing Style Breakdown
Footwork
Salvador Sanchez's footwork consists of the standard lateral movement with the bladed stance and a sudden transition into a squared-up stance (usually with the help of a shift) whenever he is in close range (if he chooses to).
To stay safe, he opted to use a bob-like head movement that acts as semi-feint. This worked because the bob-like head movement he is doing is the same head movement he does when he throws his haymaker punches.
This bob-like head movement not only loads up power, but also makes it easier to perform slips, weaves, and rolls, which he performs time-to-time to stay safe.
Sometimes, Salvador Sanchez would also use the pivot as a defensive tool, blending the pivot with his head movement like the weave, which not only provides him another layer of defence, but also provides him a new position with new punching opportunities.
And when he did square-up his boxing stance in close range, his work ethic would go into overdrive, making him a nightmare to deal with.
And as fast as he transitioned from the bladed stance to a squared up stance, he reverts back to a bladed stance after throwing his punching combination just as fast.
Head movement and Body movement
As mentioned before, Salvafor Sanchez likes to do a bob-like motion during his bladed stance. This bob-like moiton serves two purposes, to load up power to his punches and/or remain defensively responsible by moving the body and head off the center line.
This effectively makes Salvador Sanchez's bob-like motion a great semi-feint. To stay extra safe, he also does the ocassional weave after bobbing.
Another thing he does when in a bladed stance is the pull-back by crouching, which has the same principles as a normal pull-back.
He taunts his opponent to punch by crouching and exposing his head, then he just pull-back and go back to his stance. If successful, it grants him good counter-punching opportunities.
When he does transition into a squared-up stance, he uses slips, rolls, and weaves to not only stay safe, but also load up heavy punches.
His ability to dampen received damage
Technically this section is supposed to be part of head movement and body movement section, but this is such an incredible aspect of Salvador Sanchez that I feel like it deserves its own section.
Another thing that is great about Salvador Sanchez is that he knows how to get hit the least damage receiving way.
Whenever Slavador Sanchez gets hit or is about to get hit, he either weaves or rolls with the punch, which not only effectively dampens damage received but also loads up either his lead or rear leg (depending where the punch was going), which allows him to execute a heavy counter-attack shortly after getting hit.
Boxing Guard
Salvador Sanchez has 3 main boxing guards, they are the High Guard, the Low Guard, and the Amateur Boxing Guard (lead hand slightly more forward than the rear hand). Salvardor Sanchez uses these boxing guards situationally.
The High Guard is there to either parry or blunt attacks; The Low Guard allows greater vision than the High guard; And finally the Amateur Boxing Guard is used to either there to set up combinations or go closer to the opponent.
Sometimes he would drop his lead hand while keeping his right hand to his face. There are two possible reasons for this, either he is resting his lead hand or he is inviting an attack from his opponent (which would make the most sense since he has incredible stamina and a counter-puncher).
Extraodinary Stamina
Whether it was a gift from God or obtained through training, or maybe due to both of these reasons, Salvador Sanchez had an incredible engine.
His stamina is the main and vital reason why his style of boxing work so well. This is because his style of boxing consists of level changes, explosive footwork, and constant head movement, which requires an inhuman amount of stamina, especially if you are planning to fight like this with optimal pace for 15 rounds.
Copyright ©2024 by Marshall Vulta
Last Revised: July 29, 2024
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