Roy Jones On Salvador Sanchez

Just read this quote attributed to RJJ, and thought I’d share. Had no idea Roy felt this way. Sal truly was a special fighter. I remember the shock when he died at only 23 years-old. One can only imagine what such a fighter might’ve done with another ten to fifteen years. Gone way too soon. “I'll be honest, the best fighter I've ever seen was a Mexican guy named Salvador Sanchez. Sanchez was a great Mexican boxer; without a doubt the best boxer I've ever watched. I studied and grabbed some things from him. He was one of my favorites. He had an extraordinary footwork. He basically had everything — offensive, defensive, everything. He was a very complete fighter, and nobody had the cardio he had. He fought at the same pace from the first to the last round. Salvador Sanchez was one of the first foreign boxers to influence me; he really did. Beat tough guys, hall of famer. He fought with men like Juan Laporte, Danny Lopez and Wilfredo Gomez, who was a machine. Sanchez was fantastic. How can I not admire him?” I remember him praising SS on a build up episode for a fight he had coming up on HBO back in the day

Very nice to see the respect. Based on Roy's style I wouldn't have expected him to have drawn so much inspiration from Sanchez, but boxing is funny like that. Unlike most examples people put forward, Sanchez is truly one of boxing's 'what ifs' because he was everything they say he was and already a great at just twenty-three, the only thing he needed was more time. Sanchez-Gomez is in my personal top three favourite fights of all time, it's one I could watch ad-nauseam.