The legacy of the late great featherweight champion Salvador Sanchez picks up with his now professionally active 24-year-old nephew of the same name, Salvador Sanchez II. Nearly identical in physical stature and looks, Sanchez hails from the same hometown as his uncle, Santiago Tianguistenco, Mexico, and fights as a featherweight wearing the same trunks, robes and shoes that his uncle, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991, adorned over 30 years ago.
Sanchez turned pro in 2005 and has thus far built a record of 19-3-2 (9 KOs), losing only once in his last 22 starts. Managed by Grant Elvis Phillips, Sanchez was recently signed to a promotional contract with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. In his first fight for the promotional company, Sanchez thrilled a crowd of over 50,000 fans with a devastating knockout of Jaime Villa at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, on the Pacquiao-Clottey undercard.
“Salvador wanted to be a fighter since he was little,” said Phillips, of his fighter’s aspirations. “His parents wanted him to go to school, similar to the original Salvador Sanchez, whose parents didn’t want him to be a boxer, either. They wanted him to go to college.”
Sanchez is trained by the venerable Abel Sanchez, along with strength and conditioning coach Chris Tirado, and will be returning to the ring on June 26, 2010, on his biggest stage yet, live on Pay-Per-View, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, as part of the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-John Duddy undercard. His opponent will be the tough Tomas Villa, who waged a war against hard-hitting future title challenger Rogers Mtagwa, in 2008, in one of the year’s best fights.
