The Salvador Sanchez Legend – Boxing Style Breakdown

Salvador Sanchez is for me absolutely a boxing legend. Some might argue that his career was too short to justify the title of boxing legend, but for me the young age at which we lost him and the amazing record he had amassed until his tragic passing justifies even more the legend.

This video is a Salvador Sanchez breakdown in which I describe my 5 fearsome factors of the Mexican legend. These are the boxing style elements that I think made Sanchez the unbelievably effective fighter that he was and the elements that I think would have, in time, made Sanchez undeniably one of the greatest fighters the sport has ever seen.

For me, Salvador Sanchez is one of the best ‘box fighters’ I have ever seen, meaning that he has sublime boxing skills as well as the ability to go toe-to-toe in the trenches both with equal effectiveness.

Salvador Sanchez was the world featherweight champion, reigning for 2 years between 1980 and 1982. He turned professional at the age of 16 and amassed a record of 44-1-1 before he was tragically killed at the age of 23. Despite his incredible achievement, making 9 defences against genuine top class opposition, we did not see Sanchez in his prime – he was only going to get better over the coming years.

My 5 Fearsome Factors of the Salvador Sanche boing style:

1. Wonderful balance and guard. Bodyweight central, nice width on the stance and a functional guard position meaning that he was always able to block incoming punches with minor adjustments. When he did square his boxing stance at close range his body movement would go into overdrive, making him very difficult to hit.
2. The edge of range ‘bounce’. At the edge of range, Sanchez has a wonderful ‘bounce’ in his stance. He uses an outstanding jab and lots of feints to trigger the opponent. He applies pressure. But is also willing to back off as he needs as part of his overall strategy.
3. Angles and variations of punches – From long range to short range, Sanchez uses a wonderful array of varied punches. He is always looking to set up, is bold with his attacks often leading with left hooks and right crosses and varies the hand position for hooks and uppercuts.
4. Punching with body movement. Sanchez has the most incredible ability to seamlessly combine his punching with head movement. He will use slips off straight punches, he will use rolls off hooks and uppercuts and will use the duck off pretty much any punch. This makes him defensively super-efficient and incredibly difficult to counter punch. Salvador is a master of combining attack and defense.
5. Conditioning. Whilst the average Sanchez opponent looks like they’ve been involved in a 6 hour bar room brawl after 8 rounds of fighting, Sal looks like he’s been having tea with the Dalai Lama for the last hour. He is serene in the corner and looks like he could literally fight all night.

My dream fight – Salvador Sanchez vs Julio Cesar Chavez at super-weight. The greatest dream fight in the history of boxing, no case to argue in my view but happy to hear your thoughts 😀

Cheers

Fran

by