Julio Cesar Chavez
Early Life & Career
Born on 12th July 1962, Chavez was one of ten children. He claimed that "I started fighting before I was one minute old." On 05th February 1980, aged 17 he made his professional debut against Andres Felix winning by a sixth-round knockout.
There are sources that suggest Chavez actually lost an early fight due to a disqualification, but this hasn't been confirmed. As records stand he was 43-0 when he challenged fellow Mexican Mario Martinez for the vacant WBC super-featherweight crown on 13th September 1984. Explosive short hooks and body punches helped him on the way to an eighth-round victory.
Over a period of three years, Chavez made nine successful defences including such names as Roger Mayweather, Francisco Tomas Da Cruz and Juan Laporte. He also had a few non-title fights against some obscure opponents like Roberto Collins Lindo who had a record of 1-15-0.
On 21st November 1987 Chavez moved up to the lightweight division and challenged the WBA champion from Puerto Rican Edwin Rosario. In what was probably Chavez's peak performance he took the crown in the 11th round to become a two-weight champion.
After a non-title fight in March '88, he defended the WBA belt on 16th April 1988 against unbeaten challenger Rodolfo Aquilar, winning by TKO in the sixth round.
After two more non-title fights he stepped in with fellow Mexican and WBC title holder Jose Luis Ramirez, who had a record of 101-6-0, on 19th October 1988. Chavez unified 2/3 of the division in unsatisfactory circumstances as the fight was stopped after an accidental head-butt in the eleventh round. Chavez was ahead on the scorecards and awarded the bout.
On 13th May 1989, the Mexican stepped up to the light-welterweight division and took on reigning WBC champion Roger Mayweather. The American retired after ten rounds, making Chavez a three-weight world champion, and still undefeated in sixty-three bouts.
Vs Meldrick Taylor
Three non-title fights and two championship defences later he stepped in the ring on 17th March 1990 to take on Meldrick Taylor, the IBF champion. Chavez had slowed down somewhat as the new decade started and this was evident in the first six rounds as the quick Taylor raced into a huge points lead.
Taylor turned professional after winning featherweight gold at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, capping off a fine amateur career of 99 victories from 103 contests. He faced Luke Lecce in his pro debut at Madison Square Garden and won by TKO in the first round. He won twelve on the bounce before drawing with Howard Davis Jr over six rounds.
Taylor was blindingly fast and used his speed to dazzle good pros like Dwight Pratchett, Harold Brazier and John Meakin to defeat. Buddy McGirt, the IBF light-welterweight couldn’t handle Taylor either and with a career-best performance stopped the champion with one minute remaining of the twelfth round.
Both Chavez and Taylor had a combined record of 92 victories between them, nineteen of them involving various versions of world title fights.
The first six rounds went to Taylor, the IBF champion as he used his speed to make Chavez look slow and ponderous. He punched the faster, was more competent in defence and out-punched the Mexican in the toe-to-toe exchanges. Chavez’s style in his previous sixty-eight contests was to walk through his opponents' attacks and wear them down to submission. Taylor had the definite edge scoring well with his left jab.
It wasn’t all one-way traffic though as Chavez was getting through with his left hooks, but Taylor was making him look ordinary. His success made him a bit overconfident in the seventh as he elected to brawl with the Mexican and finally allowed Chavez to make a real impression.
Taylor reverted to his boxing in the next round and hurt the WBC champion early in the ninth with two jarring left hooks. Chavez, who was being roared on by a large contingent of Mexican supporters in the 9,000-strong crowd fired back with some fierce combinations.
The next round was more of the same with some high-quality exchanges, but Chavez was the one looking the stronger and was finally rolling, but running out of time. Chavez kept up the pressure in the eleventh, but without any significant success.
Chavez came out for the final round like a man possessed as he knew he needed a knockout to win and keep his undefeated record intact. Taylor was bone weary, dehydrated and suffering from a cut lip and a ‘blowout fracture of the left eye.’ All he had to do was stay on his feet for three minutes and Chavez’s WBC belt would be added to his IBF strap.
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| Chavez lands a left hook on Meldrick Taylor 17 MAR 1990 |
He got up as referee Richard Steele had counted five. The red warning light, fixed on top of the ring post directly behind Taylor was flashing to warn Steele that there were less than ten seconds of the round/contest remaining.
With Taylor’s eye closing and mouth bleeding Steele asked him: “Are you all right?” He got no response and waved the fight off with two seconds of action remaining. The referee’s decision outraged Taylor’s team as manager Lou Duva had to be restrained as he protested Steele stopping the fight.
At the post-fight press conference, the official received even more criticism, but said the following day: “When a guy doesn’t respond, what are you going to do? I asked him twice. It’s a shame.”
The contest will go down in fistic history as having one of the most controversial endings in a fight of this importance. Chavez was ordered to give Taylor a rematch, but the American will need time to recover from his injuries before taking on the champion again.
Blemishes
After the Taylor fight Chavez went to Madrid and KO'd Akwei Addo from Ghana who had a record of 5-3-0. The following month he went back to Mexico to fight another novice, American Russell Mosley who was 4-3-1. Chavez obviously was too much for this man and stopped him in the third. Mexican Jaime Balboa was vastly more experienced than the last two opponents but lost via a fourth-round TKO.
On 08th December 1990 on the Mike Tyson vs Alex Stewart undercard Chavez finally defended his belts against the Korean Kyung-Duk Ahn, who had an impressive record of 29-1-0 going into the contest. Chavez walked through his challenger, winning by a third-round TKO.
A year and a day after beating Meldrick Taylor, Chavez was in the ring again on the Tyson vs Ruddock show. His opponent had another impressive record of 36-1-0. This didn't deter him from beating John Duplessis via a fourth-round TKO.
As his promotor, Don King had fallen out with International Boxing Federation President Bob Lee, for not stripping 'Buster' Douglas of the heavyweight title; he made all his IBF champions relinquish that version of the belt, meaning that Chavez only held the WBC bauble.
From the Duplessis contest in '91 to May 1993 Chavez was a busy champion fighting thirteen times in title and non-title contests. In September 1992 he inflicted only the second defeat of Hector 'Macho' Camacho's career with a unanimous points decision. He also halted the tough American Greg Haugen in the fifth round.
On 10th September 1993 Chavez stepped up a weight class and challenged WBC welterweight champion Pernell 'Sweet Pea' Whitaker. Whitaker was America's top amateur and won gold at the Los Angeles Olympics. He turned pro with Main Events and was robbed in a WBC lightweight challenge to Chavez victim Jose Luis Ramirez. He got his career back on track by taking the IBF strap from Greg Haugen, the WBC belt in a rematch with Ramirez and took just a round to win the WBA title against Juan Nazario, making him the undisputed lightweight champion, the first since Roberto Duran a decade before.
With weight problems and a lack of opposition, he became a double-weight champion by taking Rafael Pineda's IBF light-welterweight crown in 1992. Without defending the championship Whitaker then became a three-weight champion by decisioning WBC welterweight champion Buddy McGuirt.
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| A disappointed Pernell Whitaker 10 SEP 1993 |
After another non-title contest, Chavez beat the unbeaten Liverpudlian Andy Holligan on a fifth-round retirement. The start of 1994 saw the Mexican take on Frankie Randall, known as the surgeon as he dissects his opponents. Randall wasn't seen much as a threat to Chavez, but he boxed superbly and capped off his performance by knocking the champion to the canvas in the eleventh round en route to a split decision victory, as he claimed the WBC light-welterweight crown and inflicted the first defeat of Chavez's career.
On 07th May 1994, both men went at it again. The contest finished in unsatisfactory circumstances as a clash of heads, which looked like the Mexican initiated, terminated the bout in the eighth round due to a bad cut for Chavez. The fight went to the scorecards with Chavez regaining his title via a technical decision.
September
1994 saw him beat Meldrick Taylor in the much-anticipated rematch. Even though
Taylor did become a world champion again by beating Aaron Davis for the WBA
welterweight title, back-to-back losses to WBC light-middleweight champion
Terry Norris and welterweight challenger Crisanto Espana saw him as damaged
goods. Taylor did have three victories going into this light-welterweight
challenge, but he was facing a hopeless task, losing by an eight-round TKO.
Chavez held on to the title until 07th
June 1996 when he had a bloody battle with undefeated two-weight champion Oscar
De La Hoya. The champion's face was a bloody mess as 'The Golden Boy' inflicted
only the second defeat in his ninety-eight fight career.
For all he earned in the ring, the
former champ was beset with financial and personal problems. His wife divorced
him in October 1996 and in the same month, he handed over his entire $1,000,000
purse for his win over Joey Gamache to the tax officials. "Why has this
happened? Because I'm a boxer, not an accountant," he said.
He fought on and nearly eight years
after he defeated Meldrick Taylor for the first time, he fought Miguel Angel
Gonzalez for the vacant WBC light-welterweight crown. The judges scored the
contest 115-114 (Chavez), 116-114 (Gonzalez) and 115 each, making the fight a
draw.
He then moved up a division and beat Ken
Sigurani in the third, before challenging De La Hoya again, this time for the
'Golden Boy's' WBC welterweight title. The champion caught the Mexican with his
best shots, but he stood there and took it. This time there was no cut until
the seventh round and the eighth saw De La Hoya open up a cut inside Chavez's
mouth. The great warrior refused to come out for the ninth and retired on his
stool, the end of his career, at thirty-six years old looking like coming to a
close.
Still, he campaigned as a welterweight,
but in October 1999 lost a ten-round unanimous decision to American Willy Wise.
A third-round TKO victory over Buck Smith at the end of the year set him up for
an odious WBC light-welterweight challenge to Kostya Tszyu in Arizona, his
thirty-seventh world title contest.
The bout took place on 29th July 2000.
Chavez was floored in the fifth and again in the sixth as he was taking a huge
beating from the younger champion, who kept his belt after one minute and 28
seconds of the round with Chavez stopped on his feet.
Julio Cesar Chavez was inactive for
fourteen months before coming back on 24th November 2001 beating Terry Thomas
after 50 seconds of the second round. Nearly twenty-four months later he
avenged his October '99 points defeat to Willy Wise with a second-round TKO.
In May 2004 he had a rubber match with
Randall, outpointing him over ten rounds. In May 1995, he decisioned the once
useful Ivan Robinson, hardly losing any of the ten rounds.
Finally, on 17th September 1995 Chavez
was involved in his final professional contest which saw him retire after five
rounds to Grover Wiley in a light-middleweight bout. His final record is
107-6-2 (86 KOs).
Even though Chavez did pad
out his career with some obscure and inexperienced boxers when he was world
champion, you can't argue the fact that he did beat some great fighters of his
time. Julio Cesar Chavez's place in history as one of the greatest fighters to
ever grace the ring is difficult to deny.
Lea @LeaWorrall
Boxing Books are available on Amazon, Kobo, Apple Books, Smash Words, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, and most other digital stores: https://linktr.ee/leroy_fight_writer
Boxing Books are available on Amazon, Kobo, Apple Books, Smash Words, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, and most other digital stores: https://linktr.ee/leroy_fight_writer
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