THE 100 GREATEST BOXERS OF ALL TIME #21: JULIO CESAR CHAVEZ

“THE LION OF CULIACAN”

107 WINS (86 BY KO), 6 LOSSES, 2 DRAWS

WBC Super Featherweight Titlist 1984–1987

WBA Lightweight Titlist 1987–1988

World Lightweight Champion 1988

WBC Super Lightweight Champion 1989–1994, 1994–1996

World Junior Welterweight Champion 1990–1994, 1994–1996

The Ring Fighter of the Year 1990

Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year 1987

International Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee 2011

The people of Mexico regard Julio Cesar Chavez with the same hero worship that Americans once lavished upon Joe Louis. They see in Chavez’s stoic work ethic, pugnacious determination, and brutalizing power the masculine embodiment of what they want to see in themselves, in the same way that Americans saw what they wanted in Louis. The only Latin fighter whose popularity and achievements could rival those of Roberto Duran, Chavez did not overtly display Duran’s chest-pounding machismo, nor did he fight with the same kind of blatant fury. Instead, he fought with a grim and determined consistency, always chugging forward, always dangerous, and always landing the most excruciating left hook to the body the sport has ever seen.

To box, one need only be able to afford a pair of gloves — and even that is optional, so long as you can avoid the law. Because of its affordability, it has always been a poor man’s sport, and because of that, it has proven to be exceedingly popular throughout Latin America, where poverty and a sense of masculine pride are a part of life for young men. Only soccer rivals boxing for widespread popularity in Mexico, and boys start learning both early.

Like a lot of his fellow Mexican greats, Julio Cesar Chavez started boxing as a child and turned pro as a teen with little to no organized amateur boxing career behind him. Fighting exclusively in his home country, he racked up a record of 43 consecutive wins, 36 by knockout before making his U.S. debut on September 13, 1984, with a thrilling eighth-round stoppage of junior lightweight (130 pounds) titlist Mario Martinez in the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles.

After nine successful title defenses, Chavez invaded the lightweight (135 pounds) division and took on Puerto Rico’s Edwin Rosario on November 21, 1987, in Las Vegas. It was one of the very few fights where Chavez’s emotionless poker face failed him. In the build-up to the fight, Rosario referred to Mexicans as “fags” and “whores,” and Chavez relished punishing Rosario over eleven rounds. After the fight, he broke down in tears at having defended his people’s honor. That win earned him the undying love of his countrymen and the WBC lightweight belt.

Chavez won universal recognition as the true world lightweight champ against Jose Luis Ramirez in 1988 and then immediately jumped up to the junior welterweight (140 pounds) class. By 1990, he was undefeated in 68 fights and widely regarded as the best fighter, pound-for-pound, on the planet.

On March 17 of that year, he took on former Olympian Meldrick Taylor for supremacy of the division. Undefeated and with stunningly quick flurries of punches, the swift Taylor took an early lead by outboxing Chavez, but the Mexican warrior punished Taylor’s body until the American began to wilt in the later rounds. He put Taylor on the floor with just seconds to go in the twelfth and final round, and though Taylor rose, referee Richard Steele stopped the fight. The fight was an instant classic and The Ring magazine named it the Fight of the Year for 1990.

Chavez defended the world junior welterweight championship nine times before losing in a momentous upset to the unheralded Frankie Randall. To that point, he had gone undefeated in an incredible 90 professional bouts, the only blemish to that point being a twelve-round draw with Hall of Famer Pernell Whitaker in a challenge for the welterweight (147 pounds) laurels.

Though clearly not the fighter he once was, Chavez regained his belts from Randall in a 1994 rematch and made four more defenses (including a second win over Taylor) before losing on cuts against young superstar Oscar De La Hoya in 1996. After 25 years in the ring, Chavez retired as a living legend of Mexican boxing in 2005 as one of the few modern fighters to have more than 100 wins in his career.

Julio Cesar Chavez’s record vs. Hall of Famers & lineal world champions:

7/7/1985 — W (TKO) 2 — Roger Mayweather

8/3/1986 — W 12 — Rocky Lockridge

11/21/1987 — W (TKO) 11 — Edwin Rosario

5/13/1989 — W (TKO) 10 — Roger Mayweather

9/12/1992 — W 12 — Hector Camacho

9/10/1993 — D 12 — Pernell Whitaker

1/29/1994 — L 12 — Frankie Randall

5/7/1994 — W 8 — Frankie Randall

6/7/1996 — L (TKO) 4 — Oscar De La Hoya

9/18/1998 — L (TKO) 6 — Oscar De La Hoya

7/29/2000 — L (TKO) 6 — Kostya Tszyu

5/22/2004 — W 10 — Frankie Randall