Ричард Сандовал: Американдық боксшының өмірі мен мансабы

American boxer

Richard Sandoval (born 18 October 1960) is an American retired professional boxer and former 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. He's also the younger brother of title contender Alberto Sandoval.

Sandoval who is of Mexican descent was born in Pomona, California, a city famous in pugilistic circles as a hot bed for young boxing prospects, including Shane Mosley. Sandoval's brother Alberto Sandoval was a popular bantamweight of the 1970s, who unsuccessfully challenged Carlos Zarate and Lupe Pintor for the world title. 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.

He was a two time National Golden Gloves Champion and from 1979–1980, Sandoval went on to win the National AAU Championship at Light Flyweight and then in the Flyweight division. Sanadoval 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.

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 still fighting professionally at the age of 42 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. 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.

Sandoval's next fight was held on 15 March 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. After dropping the champion in round eleven, Sandoval won by TKO in round fifteen to become a world champion in a major upset. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

No. (Number)ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes30Loss29–1Gaby CanizalesTKO7 (15)1986 03 1029Win29–0Hector CortezUD10 (10)1986 02 0728Win28–0Diego AvilaUD10 (10)1985 11 1027Win27–0Jose GallegosUD10 (10)1985 08 2426Win26–0Frankie DuarteSD10 (10)1985 04 0925Win25–0Cardenio UlloaTKO8 (15)1984 12 1524Win24–0Edgar RomanUD15 (15)1984 09 2223Win23–0Jeff ChandlerTKO15 (15)1984 04 0722Win22–0Ramon RicoUD10 (10)1983 08 2521Win21–0George GarciaSD10 (10)1983 05 1920Win20–0David BejinesTKO6 (10)1983 03 2419Win19–0Jose CoronadoTKO6 (? )1983 03 0318Win18–0Alonzo GonzalezUD10 (10)1982 11 2717Win17–0Jose Luis GarciaTKO2 (10)1982 09 0916Win16–0Julio RodriguezUD10 (10)1982 08 1915Win15–0Ian ClydeSD10 (10)1982 07 0114Win14–0Miguel FloresKO2 (10)1982 05 0613Win13–0Harold PettyMD10 (10)1982 04 0312Win12–0Ron CisnerosTKO4 (10)1982 02 2511Win11–0Harold PettySD10 (10)1982 01 2810Win10–0Jose TorresTKO1 (10)1981 11 269Win9–0Javier BarajasTKO3 (10)1981 10 228Win8–0Marcello CamachoKO1 (8)1981 07 237Win7–0Javier BarajasKO4 (? )1981 06 266Win6–0Lorenzo RamirezTKO3 (8)1981 05 285Win5–0Frankie GranadosTKO2 (6)1981 03 264Win4–0Luis RuizTKO2 (6)1981 02 263Win3–0Jose CastroKO1 (? )1981 01 292Win2–0Miguel JuarezKO1 (6)1980 12 261Win1–0Gerardo PedrozaKO2 (4)1980 11 05

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 remain friends.