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Richard Sandoval (born October 18, 1960 in Pomona,
California), better known as Richie Sandoval, is a
Mexico|Mexican-United States|American former
Boxing|boxer whose life almost ended in tragedy
during his last fight as a professional.

The city of Pomona, in particular, has been known
for a very long time as a hot-bed for young boxing
prospects. Sandoval's brother, Arturo Sandoval
(boxer)|Arturo, was a popular Bantamweight of the
1970s who unsuccessfully challenged Carlos Zarate
and Lupe Pintor for the world title. Sandoval
would meet another future world champion, Alberto
Davila, at Pomona boxing gyms. Eventually, they
became friends, and, perhaps ironically, they
shared the burden of boxing's dangers later on in
life.  

It shall be pointed out that Pomona is also the
hometown of Shane Mosley.

Richie Sandoval made his professional boxing debut
on November 5, 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, he met Harold Petty, a
boxer who is still fighting professionally at the
age of 42, and who challenged twice for world
titles. On January 28, 1982, he defeated the until
then undefeated Petty by a ten round decision. He
would have seven more wins that year, including
another ten round points victory over Petty.

He had five wins in 1983, year in which his
friend, Davila, won the World Boxing Council|WBC
world Bantamweight title by knocking out Kiko
Bejines, who died days later. Sandoval then saw.
for the first time, the tragic side of boxing
closely, seeing how hard it was for Davila to
recover from such tragedy.

Sandoval's next fight was held on March 15, 1984.
Despite the fact that he owned a record of 22
victories without any losses, with fifteen
knockouts, he was a virtual unknown to most boxing
fans when he met the World Boxing Association|WBA
world Bantamweight champion Jeff Chandler in
Atlantic City, New Jersey|Atlantic City. After
dropping the champion in round eleven, Sandoval
knocked Chandler out in round fifteen, becoming
world Bantamweight champion and causing a major
upset. For his next fight, held on September 22 of
that same year, Sandoval travelled abroad for the
first time in his professional career, beating the
top ranked and well known Edgar Roman by a fifteen
round decision at Monte Carlo, Monaco, to retain
the title as part of an undercard that included
Donald Curry's sixth round knockout win over Nino
LaRocca.

His next fight, on December 15 of that year, was
against Cardenio Ulloa of Chile. According to the
report made by The Ring En Espanol, Ulloa, who was
attempting to become the first Chilean world
boxing champion in history, made Chilean dictator
Augusto Pinochet jump off his chair when he
dropped Sandoval in the first 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 weight for
fights at the Featherweight division, two
divisions above his weight class, 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 vacate it. He chose to defend it, despite his
problems to make weight. 

On March 3 of 1986, he defended his title against
Gaby Canizales, as part of a super-undercard
organized by promoter Bob Arum, including the
Thomas Hearns|Hearns versus James Shuler|Shuler
and Marvin Hagler|Hagler versus John Mugabi|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 on water for those three days. 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.

Sandoval fell unconscious a few minutes after the
fight, and he stopped breathing for an estimated
three minutes. He was rushed to a hospital by
local, on-site paramedics, but he remained in
critical condition for the next few nights. He had
a life saving brain surgery, but, as a consequence
of the surgery itself, he was not allowed to fight
professionally again and was forced to retire with
a record of 29 wins and one loss, 17 wins by
knockout.

Had he not had this brain surgery, doctors
prognosed, he would have died. But because of the
type of proceeding involved in the surgery, he
would not be allowed to fight again, as he would
have been in greater risk of dying had he fought
once again.

Sandoval later went touring across the United
States with Davila, as both had been through both
sides of a tragic boxing bout. They went to
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.