What a way to ruin a top prospect in Richard Torrez Jr by putting him with a dangerous heavyweight like Frank Sanchez… That Sanchez fight was not needed at this time. Torrez had a lot more time to develop to get a title shot.
Now, they busted a good prospect. There is a good chance he turns into chum for other up and coming fighters. They busted Torrez Jr…
I would have matched him with a Shaw, Goodall or a washed up Charles Martin.
So you think they moved him too fast but did you say that before the fight was made?
Every boxer needs to be tested and some succeed the acid test. Torrez can come back but maybe he is too small for the heavyweight division.
i was not even aware that was a fight until two days ago… funny how under promoted this fight was.
if you can’t get past a frank sanchez level guy then you shouldn’t be thinking about titles
exactly… it was way too early for him to be thinking about titles. They just busted a good prospect. A damn shame, really.
This is one of those topics in boxing where you find arguments on both sides. Reminds me of the talk Xander Zayas is getting by having accepted a fight vs Boots Ennis. Although in Zayas’s case, he’s already a champion and is defending his belts. Still… a vast majority of people are giving Zayas “nil and none” as his chances to beat Ennis.
The argument was also used back when Fernando Vargas was thrown in against Felix Trinidad. They said (post-fight) that it had been too early in Vargas’s career to go in against a Trinidad.
Now that I think about it, what other fighters out there have been “thrown to the wolves” too early, before they’ve had a chance to develop properly… and then suffered a devastating loss?
Big Baby Anderson vs Bakole… That destroyed that kid, even though he wasn’t all that good. He could have gotten a longer run than what he got when he got cut down by Bakole.
nah, this fight just showed his level
Think of it like this, Wilder in his 15th fought a career 175 pounder who was coming in off a 2-year layoff. At some obscure state college campus in front of hundreds of fans. And he was an Olympic medalist too. He’d do another 13 fights before his ‘name’ test vs a spent shell casing in Audley Harrison. Do we really want to sit thru that again? The pressure of the US heavyweight scene is very real, but there comes a point when sink or swim type match ups need to happen. Heavyweights stateside are in some of the worst shape and little promise that I can recall as a fan and it sucks. But the answer is not to preserve and isolate a very decent and likable guy like Torrez but also one who has clear limitations. All the padding in the world wouldn’t improve flat feet and a heavy frontal style on that frame. Put him in the fire. If anything, it gave him a respectable fighting chance to crack the very top. After all they pushed him to #8 in the world and with that comes trials and consequences, high or low. Getting sparked out clean happens to a ton of hyped-up hopefuls and it’s only then that you start finding out what they are made of often. I mean shit even Bruce Seldon went on to be a heavyweight champion 
joshua edwards & pryce taylor are 2 us prospects to keep an eye on, there are a few others & some still amateur almost ready to turn over, us heavyweights aren’t over just yet
But that fight with Sanchez was not the fight.
looked to me that he, correctly, saw a right hand start, and worked out that what he ought to do is duck under it. its just that the right hand that he thought he was going to go under was sweeping up to meet him on the way down to that little safe spot he wanted to stick his head into the sand into and the difference between the punch that knocks you out and the one that just hits you is all about not expecting to get hit. it has absolutely nothing to do with how hard you get hit. nothing.