Julio César Chavez

Julio César Chavez
Data
Birth Name	Julio César Chavez
Weight class	Super featherweight, lightweight, light welterweight
nationality	Mexican
birthday	July 12, 1962
place of birth	Ciudad Obregón
style	Left delivery
size	1.70 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	115
Victories	107
Knockout victories	86
Defeats	6th
draw	2

Julio César Chávez (born July 12, 1962 in Ciudad Obregón , Mexico ) is a former Mexican professional boxer. He won his first 87 fights in a row, 75 of them by knockout, and thus achieved an unrivaled record in professional boxing. He is a former WBC super featherweight world champion, former WBC and WBA lightweight world champion, as well as a former IBF and two-time WBC light welterweight world champion. In 2011 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

His son Julio César Chávez junior is a former WBC middleweight champion.

career

Chavez, like most Mexican boxers, gave up an amateur career entirely and turned pro in 1980 at the age of only seventeen. He played his first professional fight on February 5, 1980. He beat his first 44 opponents in build-up fights. On March 4, 1981, however, there was a fight against Miguel Ruiz (3 wins, 9 losses), which lingered on him for a long time. He looked it up at the end of the first round and was immediately disqualified. The boxing committee of Culiacan, to which his manager Ramon Felix belonged, later changed the result to a "knockout victory".

On September 13, 1984 he won in Los Angeles by an early victory over his compatriot Mario Martínez WBC title in super featherweight (English: junior lightweight). He successfully defended this title nine times until 1987, including against Roger Mayweather by knockout, but his points victories against Rocky Lockridge and Juan LaPorte were controversial.

In 1987 he was able to prematurely win the WBA title in the next higher weight class, the lightweight, against the dreaded Puerto Rican puncher Edwin Rosario , which is considered a career highlight for many experts.

In 1988 he was able to combine this belt with the WBC title of his friend and compatriot José Luis Ramírez . Despite the title and visually impressive record of 101 wins (82 KOs) in 107 fights, Ramírez was considered beatable, but had recently beaten Olympic champion Pernell Whitaker with a highly controversial score , which Chavez took for a long time to avoid Whitaker.

As early as 1989 he rose to the light welterweight division, where he again met Roger Mayweather, the uncle of Floyd Mayweather Jr. , in the fight for the WBC title and also secured this belt. Mayweather gave up the fight after stomach cramps as a result of body hits on a lap break.

In 1990 the most famous but also most controversial fight of his career occurred when he won a technical knockout in a union fight with the IBF title holder, the US Olympic champion Meldrick Taylor , just two seconds before the final gong . The termination was controversial because Taylor was on his feet and leading on the scoreboard at the time. There was no official rematch because Taylor then boxed in the welterweight division, but Chavez preferred to remain in the light welterweight division. (Chavez boxed very well later in the welterweight division and the rematch years later took place in the light welterweight division).

In 1992 he defeated the popular, but his climax far behind, Hector Camacho on points in a title defense .

In a sporting otherwise little noticed WBO light welterweight world championship fight against Greg Haugen (USA), which Chavez won in the 5th round by demolition, 136,000 spectators came to the Aztec Stadium in February 1993 , which meant a world record.

On September 10, 1993 he boxed a draw against the US star Pernell Whitaker on a trip to the welterweight division . The result was considered very controversial, independent observers had rated the fight as a clear point victory Whitaker.

On January 29, 1994, Frankie Randall suffered his first official defeat, Randall was Top 10 in Ring Magazine but a largely blank slate. Chavez was in this fight for the first time in his career on the ground and finally lost with an (officially) close 2-1 point decision. He was then able to win the direct rematch in May of that year, Randall was subsequently diverted to another title by Don King.

Nevertheless, his best time now seemed over, in 1996 and 1998 he lost to Óscar de la Hoya prematurely. Also in his last title fight, on July 29, 2000 against Kostya Tszyu , he had no chance and lost to technical knockout in the sixth round.

After a 25-year professional career with 115 fights, he finally ended his career in 2005.

In 2011, Chavez was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

successes

• Super featherweight: WBC World Champion 1984–1987
• Lightweight: WBA world champion 1987–1989, WBC world champion 1988–1989
• Light welterweight: IBF world champion 1990–1991, WBC world champion 1989–1994, 1994–1996

Web links

• Julio César Chávez in the BoxRec database

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Results without national leagues", Sport-Bild from February 24, 1993, p. 60

predecessor	Office	successor
Meldrick Taylor	Light welterweight boxing world champion ( IBF ) March 17, 1990–1991	Rafael Pineda