A Boxing Memory: Julio Cesar Chavez

A Boxing Memory: Julio Cesar Chavez

Julio Cesar Chavez has fought many things in his life. One hundred and fifteen times, he fought as a professional. But the demons he fought during and after his career were perhaps his hardest-ever opponent. Drink and drugs, the downfall of many, very nearly claimed the life of Chavez. The legendary Mexican fought back and won. Chavez was lucky, but he also showed the fighting qualities that he often demonstrated throughout much of his career. The vices of his fame took away plenty, including what was left of his prime. In many ways, some of those six defeats on his record could have been avoided. Chavez fought on way too long. He’s certainly not alone in that. We didn’t need to see Chavez suffer defeats to the likes of Willy Wise and in his last fight in 2005, to Grover Wiley. Ordinary fighters who wouldn’t have touched, let alone, beat someone of the quality of Chavez when he was the formidable fighter of old, and not just the tired old fighter who left the sport when he was 43 on a loss and with a broken hand.

Chavez was one of eleven children, raised in poverty, and had time living in an abandoned railway car. He started fighting when he was just eight and dreamt of earning enough money to buy his mother a home. A mission he would accomplish. And as they now, and then some. He went ninety fights unbeaten before Frankie Randall, with more than a touch of his ongoing battle with his demons, dropped him and beat him on points in 1994. Low blows cost Chavez two points. And the fight. The Mexican got his revenge on two different occasions, but the decline was already in play.

The previous year, Pernell Whitaker was denied a rightful victory against Chavez. Whitaker had to settle for a majority draw in a fight where the vast majority thought he had won beyond doubt. The great wordsmith Hugh Mcilvanney labelled it a ‘Robbery with Violence.’ He was right.

But Chavez had many nights that will live long in the memory. Over 130,000 fans packed a stadium in Mexico in 1993 to see their hero brutalise the tough American Greg Haugen in five rounds. A passionate vocal crowd pelted Haugen with missiles as he fled the ring. Liverpool’s Andy Holligan suffered a similar fate in front of 30,000 fans. Hostile doesn’t even cover what Haugen and Holligan had to endure.

Chavez was a world champion at three different weights. World titles were won at super-featherweight, lightweight, and light-welterweight. The professional career started in 1980 with a 6th-round stoppage over Andres Felix and would remain unbeaten for fourteen years until the night that Randall ruined his near spotless resume. Along the way, there were memorable wins over a who’s who of his era. Juan LaPorte, Hector Camacho, Terrence Ali, Edwin Rosario, Rocky Lockridge, Roger Mayweather, Jose Luiz Ramirez, and many many more.

There were times when he came close to losing before Randall did it for real. In 1986, LaPorte lost only by a point on two of the judges’ cards in a fight for the WBC featherweight title, but it was a night four years later in Las Vegas that many still argue to this day that Chavez should have lost that precious unbeaten record.

The brilliant and flamboyant former Olympic gold medallist Meldrick Taylor fought Chavez in a much-anticipated light-welterweight showdown. Taylor, the defending IBF champion, and Chavez, the WBC bauble holder, met in a fight that is perhaps remembered more for its highly controversial conclusion than it is for the brilliance and bravery both fighters showed that night. A memorable fight that was so brutal it almost certainly took something away from Taylor that couldn’t be put back. Taylor dazzled in Vegas, building a commanding lead on the judges’ scorecards. Heading into the 12th and final round, Taylor only had to stay standing to win and inflict the first defeat on the record of Julio Cesar Chavez. But despite winning the vast majority of rounds, although one judge inexplicably had Chavez a point up after 11 rounds, Taylor was taking a systematic beating in the process. But if the Philadelphia fighter had danced his way through the final round, he would surely have won. Taylor needed clarity in his corner, but when he got mixed messages in his ear, he reverted to the patented Philadelphia way. Chavez dropped Taylor in the final seconds, and the referee Richard Steele controversially waved the fight off with just two seconds remaining.

The protests were hard and loud, and cries of foul play did the rounds. But it changed nothing. By the time Taylor got his rematch in 1994, he was nowhere near the same fighter. After another good start, Taylor soon faded and was stopped without controversy, only regrets, in 8 rounds that had a touch of sadness about them.

Even in his decline, Chavez was still a very good fighter, he earned a draw with Miguel Angel Gonzalez in 1998 in an attempt to win the WBC super-lightweight title he had lost to Oscar De La Hoya two years earlier. A rematch with De La Hoya, this time up at welterweight, ended the same way with Chavez being stopped in a one-sided fight. By that time, the demons had really taken hold. Chavez would later say when he was in recovery mode:

“At first, I [could] control it, but I just needed more alcohol and more cocaine and more and more. That’s when the problems really started. That’s when the failures began, the defeats.”

Chavez has talked about his time at the top when he had millions in the bank and being surrounded by the usual mix of backslappers, but feeling he still had nothing and the feeling of being alone.

“I had it all—money, women, fame, cars, yachts, everything a man could want—but it didn’t give my life meaning. I felt nothing. So what did I do? The most stupidest thing I could.” But Chavez had one final victory, and he became an Anti-Addiction Ambassador opening a number of rehab clinics in his native Mexico:

“Now that I realise that life gave me a second chance after my addiction to alcohol and drugs, I want to give that same second chance to people struggling with this awful problem,” said Chavez a fighter finally at peace with himself.