MEXICANS WILL COMPLAIN, BUT I DON’T CARE
San Leandro, CA- It was a hot August 1981 afternoon in Las Vegas. The TV and camera crews were setting up and testing their equipment in the Caesars Palace Sports Pavilion, an indoor arena that held about 4, 500 people. Earlier that day, circa 8 AM, they held the official weigh in for Salvador Sanchez, the defending 126 lb. (featherweight) once beaten (WBC) champion and Wilfredo Gomez the unbeaten WBC
122 lb. (super bantamweight) were both standing around. Sanchez looking a bit sleepy stepped on the scale and made 126 lbs. with little fanfare. Next up on the scale was the Puerto Rican knockout artist (33-0, 32 KOs) Gomez. Unlike Sanchez, Gomez was amped up I believe because he knew he wasn’t anywhere close to 126 lbs. as we would all soon learn. Weighing 130, Gomez realized he was in trouble.
WILFREDO HAD A FEW “SHADY” SCALINGS IN OTHER FIGHTS
Unlike some of his previous weigh ins where he never actually made 122 lbs., Gomez knew he couldn’t fudge the weight this time. Within three hours, Gomez would hit the scale two or three more times. Having been told that the lowest he got was 127 1/2, Sanchez’ people and the WBC President for life, Jose Sulaiman, they decided to let the fight go on as a 126 lb. title scrap. Having talked to people within the Gomez camp, Wilfredo had went to bed the night before real close to 126, and blame his drinking water and having a snack, all unbeknownst to Gomez’ handlers. Simply put, they were as surprised as the rest of us when Wilfredo hit the scale at 130 lbs.
GOMEZ LEFT HIS FIGHT IN THE SAUNA
Besides sitting in a sauna and spitting for almost three turns of the clock, and still unable to make the weight, Gomez was a psychological wreck for the rest of the day. Instead of relaxing in his Caesars Palace suite, the always cocky and confident Puerto Rican paced around the room as his handlers tried to call him down. When I gained access to Gomez’ dressing room as the undercard was unfolding, Wilfredo was back to being his ever so confident self. Checking into the Sanchez dressing quarters, the atmosphere was not in an almost celebratory state as Gomez’, they instead were quiet and keenly focused on what turned out to be the biggest fight in Sanchez’ career, this seeing he died one year later in a car accident while rushing back to his training camp after a booty call. Driving close to 100 MPH, Salvador met his end as he rear ended a truck carrying live chickens to market.
SANCHEZ WAS ONE COOL CUCUMBER
Although Gomez was game, especially in light of his weight woes, Sanchez was as cool as they come as met the aggressive Puerto Rican ring center and was countering Gomez when he decked Wilfredo with a punch that broke his cheekbone. They would fight back and forth for eight rounds, this before Sanchez put a beating on Gomez that mercifully ended the contest. With Yamil Charde, the Godfather of Puerto Rican boxing for decades, having dropped a bundle on Gomez, something he would tell me years later, and the rest of the Puerto Rican contingent in total shock, the Mexican fan base, who although had faith in Sanchez, they too were blown away by the manner in which Sanchez beat Gomez down.
DON KING WANTED SANCHEZ-GOMEZ II BADLY
When Sanchez died, there was talk of a Sanchez-Gomez rematch at 126, this even though Wilfredo had went back to 122 and continued to dominate his super bantamweight counterparts. Still, the big fight for both men was Sanchez-Gomez II. I was of the opinion that Gomez weight woes and the head problems brought about by such contributed greatly to his less than stellar performance, if I were a betting man, I would have dropped some coins on Gomez, this if legendary oddsmaker Herb Lambeck’s proposed 3 1/2 to 1 line on the proposed fight had come to light.
LIKE JAMES DEAN THE ACTOR, DEATH ELEVATED SANCHEZ TO UNREAL STATUS
While I respected Sanchez greatly, I think that his early death elevated him to an iconic position that might have been unwarranted. Again, I’m not diminishing Salvador Sanchez or his accomplishments, but his life and death struggle with a green (14-0) Azumah Nelson after the Gomez fight, a late round TKO, this at a time I think Gomez would have beaten Nelson at that point and time. In closing, a great percentage of the time that a fighter is beaten in an initial encounter, he loses the second time, usually in a more decisive manner. Still, had they fought a second time and Gomez was right, I think Wilfedo would have won the second match setting up a third, “Battle of The Little Giants.”
Pedro Fernandez