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By Thomas Gerbasi - To paraphrase Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, there are plenty of fighters that coulda been contenders. Augie Sanchez coulda been a champion.
For a few minutes in a tent built in the parking lot of the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut on August 19, 2000, “Kid Vegas” was on the verge of shocking the world and handing WBO featherweight champion Prince Naseem Hamed the first loss of his career.
“I look at it once in a while, and I’m like ‘man, if he just would have stayed down,’” Sanchez laughs. “I watch it over and over, and hopefully there’s a different result.”
The result that night was a come from behind fourth-round knockout win for Hamed. A little over a year later, the Las Vegas native’s boxing career was over. He was just 25 years old.
Now 36, Sanchez is still around the sport, training amateurs with his father-in-law Pat Barry at Barry’s Boxing Center, and life is good for the married father of three. He doesn’t miss being in the ring, feeling that despite his initial desire to step through the ropes after a 2001 loss to John Michael Johnson, it was ultimately the right time to walk away.
“I love boxing,” he said. “But it’s like when you’re in a restaurant and the lady pours the coffee in your cup; you’ve got to know when to say when. (Laughs) And that’s how I feel about boxing. I felt like it was my time. It was a good career. I wasn’t able to get a world title, but I did get to the level where I fought for it, so I felt like it was my time to say goodbye to the sport.”
Not many thought that would be the way things turned out for Sanchez, a stellar amateur who won a 1996 national title and even beat current pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather in that year’s Olympic trials. Mayweather would eventually earn that spot in the Atlanta Games with two subsequent victories over his rival. [Click Here To Read More]
For a few minutes in a tent built in the parking lot of the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut on August 19, 2000, “Kid Vegas” was on the verge of shocking the world and handing WBO featherweight champion Prince Naseem Hamed the first loss of his career.
“I look at it once in a while, and I’m like ‘man, if he just would have stayed down,’” Sanchez laughs. “I watch it over and over, and hopefully there’s a different result.”
The result that night was a come from behind fourth-round knockout win for Hamed. A little over a year later, the Las Vegas native’s boxing career was over. He was just 25 years old.
Now 36, Sanchez is still around the sport, training amateurs with his father-in-law Pat Barry at Barry’s Boxing Center, and life is good for the married father of three. He doesn’t miss being in the ring, feeling that despite his initial desire to step through the ropes after a 2001 loss to John Michael Johnson, it was ultimately the right time to walk away.
“I love boxing,” he said. “But it’s like when you’re in a restaurant and the lady pours the coffee in your cup; you’ve got to know when to say when. (Laughs) And that’s how I feel about boxing. I felt like it was my time. It was a good career. I wasn’t able to get a world title, but I did get to the level where I fought for it, so I felt like it was my time to say goodbye to the sport.”
Not many thought that would be the way things turned out for Sanchez, a stellar amateur who won a 1996 national title and even beat current pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather in that year’s Olympic trials. Mayweather would eventually earn that spot in the Atlanta Games with two subsequent victories over his rival. [Click Here To Read More]
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