Richie Sandoval

Template:Short description Template:Infobox boxer

Richard Sandoval (October 18, 1960 – July 21, 2024) was an American professional boxer and Lineal and WBA Bantamweight Champion. Sandoval was a silver medalist at the 1979 Pan American Games in Puerto Rico and was a U.S. Olympian during his amateur career.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was also the younger brother of title contender Alberto Sandoval.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Early lifeEdit

Sandoval who was of Mexican descent was born in Pomona, California, a city famous in pugilistic circles as a hotbed for young boxing prospects, including Shane Mosley.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Sandoval's brother Alberto Sandoval was a popular bantamweight of the 1970s, who unsuccessfully challenged Carlos Zarate and Lupe Pintor for the world title.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The young Sandoval met another future world champion, Alberto Davila, at Pomona boxing gyms. Eventually, they became friends, and they shared the burden of boxing's dangers later on in life.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Amateur careerEdit

Sandoval was a two-time National Golden Gloves Champion and from 1979 to 1980,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sandoval went on to win the National AAU Championship at Light Flyweight and then in the Flyweight division.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sandoval qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but was unable to compete due to the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. In 2007, he received one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Professional careerEdit

Richie Sandoval made his professional boxing debut on 5 November 1980, beating Gerardo Pedroza in Las Vegas, Nevada by a knockout in two rounds. He won his first ten fights by knockout, including two over fringe contender Javier Barajas. For his eleventh fight, Sandoval met Harold Petty, a boxer who was still fighting professionally at the age of 42 and who challenged twice for world titles. On 28 January 1982, he outpointed the undefeated Petty over ten rounds, going on to seven more wins that year, including another ten-round points victory over Petty.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Sandoval had five wins in 1983, the year in which his friend Davila won the WBC Bantamweight title by knocking out Kiko Bejines, who died days later. This introduced Sandoval to the darker side of boxing as he saw how hard it was for Davila to recover.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

WBA Bantamweight ChampionshipEdit

Sandoval's next fight was held on 7 April 1984. Despite his record of 22 victories without any losses, including fifteen knockouts, he was a virtual unknown to most boxing fans when he met the Lineal and WBA Bantamweight champion Jeff Chandler in Atlantic City.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After dropping the champion in round eleven, Sandoval won by TKO in round fifteen to become a world champion in a major upset.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite tweet</ref> He followed this up with his first trip abroad as a professional boxer, to Monte Carlo on September 22. He outpointed the top ranked and well known Edgar Román over fifteen rounds on the undercard of Donald Curry's sixth-round knockout win over Nino LaRocca. He fought again on 15 December against Cardenio Ulloa, who was attempting to become the first Chilean world boxing champion in history. According to the report made by Ring En Español, Ulloa caused Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to jump off his chair with excitement when he dropped Sandoval in the third round, but Sandoval recovered and retained the title with an eighth-round knockout.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

By then, however, Sandoval was facing weight problems and he could barely make the weight even for fights in the Featherweight division, two divisions above Bantamweight, and he was forced to fight all his fights in 1985 as a Featherweight instead. He scored three ten-round decisions that year and one in 1986, including wins over Frankie Duarte and Diego Avila.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Last bout and title defenceEdit

After not defending his title for a year and a half, he was forced by the WBA to defend his title or be stripped of it. He chose to defend it, despite his problems making the weight.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 3 March 1986, Sandoval defended his title against Gaby Canizales, as part of a super-undercard organized by promoter Bob Arum, which included the Hearns versus Shuler and Hagler versus Mugabi encounters.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Sandoval reportedly had to lose around twelve pounds in three days in order to be able to fight that night, staying off any solid foods and surviving only on water. Weakened and feeling the side-effects of such a sudden drop-off in weight, Sandoval suffered four knockdowns, but he fought on until the fifth knockdown, which happened in round seven, after which the referee stopped the fight. He fell unconscious a few minutes after the fight, stopping breathing for an estimated three minutes. He was rushed to hospital by local on-site paramedics, but he remained in critical condition for the next few nights. He had life-saving brain surgery, but the inevitable consequence was that Sandoval was obliged to retire. His final record was 29 wins and one loss, 17 wins by knockout.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Professional boxing recordEdit

Template:BoxingRecordSummary

Template:Abbr	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
30	Template:No2Loss	29–1	Gaby Canizales	TKO	7 (15)	Mar 10, 1986	Template:Small	Template:Small
29	Template:Yes2Win	29–0	Hector Cortez	UD	10 (10)	1986-02-07	Template:Small
28	Template:Yes2Win	28–0	Diego Avila	UD	10 (10)	1985-11-10	Template:Small
27	Template:Yes2Win	27–0	Jose Gallegos	UD	10 (10)	1985-08-24	Template:Small
26	Template:Yes2Win	26–0	Frankie Duarte	SD	10 (10)	1985-04-09	Template:Small
25	Template:Yes2Win	25–0	Cardenio Ulloa	TKO	8 (15)	1984-12-15	Template:Small	Template:Small
24	Template:Yes2Win	24–0	Edgar Roman	UD	15 (15)	1984-09-22	Template:Small	Template:Small
23	Template:Yes2Win	23–0	Jeff Chandler	TKO	15 (15)	1984-04-07	Template:Small	Template:Small
22	Template:Yes2Win	22–0	Ramon Rico	UD	10 (10)	1983-08-25	Template:Small
21	Template:Yes2Win	21–0	George Garcia	SD	10 (10)	1983-05-19	Template:Small
20	Template:Yes2Win	20–0	David Bejines	TKO	6 (10)	1983-03-24	Template:Small
19	Template:Yes2Win	19–0	Jose Coronado	TKO	6 (?)	1983-03-03	Template:Small
18	Template:Yes2Win	18–0	Alonzo Gonzalez	UD	10 (10)	1982-11-27	Template:Small
17	Template:Yes2Win	17–0	Jose Luis Garcia	TKO	2 (10)	1982-09-09	Template:Small
16	Template:Yes2Win	16–0	Julio Rodriguez	UD	10 (10)	1982-08-19	Template:Small
15	Template:Yes2Win	15–0	Ian Clyde	SD	10 (10)	1982-07-01	Template:Small
14	Template:Yes2Win	14–0	Miguel Flores	KO	2 (10)	1982-05-06	Template:Small
13	Template:Yes2Win	13–0	Harold Petty	MD	10 (10)	1982-04-03	Template:Small
12	Template:Yes2Win	12–0	Ron Cisneros	TKO	4 (10)	1982-02-25	Template:Small
11	Template:Yes2Win	11–0	Harold Petty	SD	10 (10)	1982-01-28	Template:Small
10	Template:Yes2Win	10–0	Jose Torres	TKO	1 (10)	1981-11-26	Template:Small
9	Template:Yes2Win	9–0	Javier Barajas	TKO	3 (10)	1981-10-22	Template:Small
8	Template:Yes2Win	8–0	Marcello Camacho	KO	1 (8)	1981-07-23	Template:Small
7	Template:Yes2Win	7–0	Javier Barajas	KO	4 (?)	1981-06-26	Template:Small
6	Template:Yes2Win	6–0	Lorenzo Ramirez	TKO	3 (8)	1981-05-28	Template:Small
5	Template:Yes2Win	5–0	Frankie Granados	TKO	2 (6)	1981-03-26	Template:Small
4	Template:Yes2Win	4–0	Luis Ruiz	TKO	2 (6)	1981-02-26	Template:Small
3	Template:Yes2Win	3–0	Jose Castro	KO	1 (?)	1981-01-29	Template:Small
2	Template:Yes2Win	2–0	Miguel Juarez	KO	1 (6)	1980-12-26	Template:Small
1	Template:Yes2Win	1–0	Gerardo Pedroza	KO	2 (4)	1980-11-05	Template:Small

Retirement and deathEdit

Sandoval later went touring across the United States with Davila, as each had been through both sides of a tragic boxing bout. They went on television talk-shows and public appearances to explain to the general public how a boxer feels (in Davila's case) after an opponent has died, and how a boxer can be so close to death in an instant after a fight (in Sandoval's case), and then having to deal with the fact that he or she will never be able to box again. Sandoval and Davila remained friends.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Sandoval died on July 21, 2024, at the age of 63.<ref>R.I.P Richie Sandoval – The Former WBA Bantamweight Champ Passes At Age 63</ref>

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:S-start Template:S-sports Template:S-text Template:S-before Template:S-ttl Template:S-after Template:S-before Template:S-ttl Template:S-after Template:S-before Template:S-ttl Template:S-after Template:S-text Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-ttl Template:S-end