Sanchez vs Gomez Anniversary Fight: 30 years later

[elmersalsa]

On a Friday Night, August 21st, 1981 in Las Vegas, NV, I saw one of the most extraordinary fights of the last 30 years. It was a climatic fight of two little giants: Salvador Sanchez vs Wilfredo Gomez. Mexico vs Puerto Rico. It was a sensational atmosphere. A Latin atmosphere. A great climax for a great fight. Sanchez that night showed that he indeed was the real thing. He outbombed, outboxed and outfoxed "Bazooka" and also showed all his skills. Up to the point, Gomez had a record of 32-0-1, 32KOs!....What a record! Sanchez' record was also very good. He only lost 1 fight in 41 fights at the time, and was the WBC World Featherweight Champion. It was one of the most dominating performances that I have ever seen in boxing. It was Sanchez' finest hour.

I knew where I was when I saw that fight. I will never forget it. Viva Mexico!

[elmersalsa]

Here are some pictures of that unforgettable night.

[elmersalsa]

[elmersalsa]

I am putting the same pic...yikes!

[JDC]

One of the all time classics





ps

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Here is something that younger wouldn't understand. I couldn't find the result of this fight for days. Nothing in the newspapers and nothing on TV

[Goodnight, Irene]

Here is something that younger wouldn't understand. I couldn't find the result of this fight for days. Nothing in the newspapers and nothing on TV

Wow. Glad Im the age I am.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

It goes both ways. While I do miss having 2 or 3 HBO caliber fights on Saturday afternoons. Most lighter weight fights you wouldn't even know who was fighting until you saw the results in the magazines months later. With all of our complaints about PPV and cards, at least you can watch just about everything.

[King Carlos]

Here are some pictures of that unforgettable night.

That's good stuff. Some nice variety there.

[Ezzard]

This was a super-fight of the 1980s. In terms of talent as good as any of the match ups in the decade. Sanchez really did do a number on Gomez.

[elmersalsa]

When I was watching the fight, I was saying Puerto Rico is gonna win this fight. I missed the first round knockdown. I started watching the fight on tv live about the third round. My neighbour's house was packed of people and drinking beer. What a night. Sanchez showed that he indeed was an all-time great. To me, he is a top 5 all-time great featherweight and a top 50 all time pound per pound fighter. Could have accomplish more if he would have never had that tragic death.

But on that night, Sanchez became a legend.

[elmersalsa]

[img][Santa Clara/img]

[elmersalsa]

[img]Santa%20Clara[/img]

[Giancarlo]

Here is something that younger wouldn't understand. I couldn't find the result of this fight for days. Nothing in the newspapers and nothing on TV

Was it not televised? Or on some sort of delayed broadcast?

I have seen it with Fat Bob Sheridan and Larry Holmes commentating.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I think it might have been on Kingvision. But that was in the infant days of cable. They showed the replay on network a week or so later and I saw it then. But it wasn't covered on the news or in my local papers before then.

[Ambling Alp]

Here is something that younger wouldn't understand. I couldn't find the result of this fight for days. Nothing in the newspapers and nothing on TV

Wow. Glad Im the age I am.

You would have been liked boxing much better back then.
Boxing coverage was much more extensive until the late 1980s.

The Sanchez-Gomez fight was rebroadcast on network TV, I believe a week after it occurred. It was all over the sports pages. Weekly sports magazines such as Sports Illustrated and the Sporting News covered boxing matches much more extensively than they do now.
Many local newspapers used to cover a fight the day after.

There many more competitive matches on free TV than there is on HBO now. (contenders used to have to fight each other). And course you have to subscribe to HBO. (Actually HBO was covered fights as well since the mid-1970s) A few times a year there would be a tripleheader on free TV in prime time with big name fighters. (Usually a Friday Night).

Boxing used to be more than 10x more popluar than it is now.

[giacomino]

I was a huge fan of Bazooka Gomez but I had seen Sanchez do a masterful job of taking apart Danny "Little Red" Lopez twice, so I knew he could take a punch and deliver punches in bunches. If I remember correctly, Gomez was effed up by the early knockdown and he took a horrible beating in the 1st, which he was lucky to survive. He started coming back in the middle rounds but his bombs had little impact on Sanchez. By the 8th he couldn't see what was coming his way and Sanchez hammered him into submission. Gomez' shock absorbers were always in question after that and he had similar facial swelling problems a year later in his war with Lupe Pintor. IMO, both guys are legends who would kill anybody from 122lbs to 130lbs today.

[Aftermath]

I remember that Howard Cosell announced the result during a pre-season NFL game on ABC as soon as he found out that night. He kept going on and on how remarkable that feat was by Salvador Sanchez. Don Meredith and Frank Gifford didn’t even respond.