Mayweather vs De La Hoya – ‘Trophy Scalps’ part 2

Countdown to May 5
by Suzanne Nield

‘Trophy Scalps’

Oscar De La Hoya v Julio Cesar Chavez (1)
7 June 1996 Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas

Floyd Mayweather Jnr defeated solid, world class fighters like Genaro Hernandez and Diego Corrales to prove his credentials. Oscar De La Hoya deposed a living legend.

This was the 100th professional bout for Julio Cesar Chavez, who had been in the paid ranks since the age of 17. Chavez was, and is, a cult idol in Mexico. He could command audiences of 132,000 devoted fans, such as that which had turned up to the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City to see him take Greg Haugen apart three years previously.

Haugen had incensed the Mexican public by suggesting that most of Chavez’s opponents had been ‘Tijuana taxi-drivers’. It gave them great satisfaction when, after five rounds, the American was forced to mumble through broken teeth, ‘Those were tough Tijuana taxi drivers.’

Chavez had defended the WBC super-featherweight title for three years before moving up to take the WBA lightweight title from Edwin Rosario. He soon added the WBC, then progressed to take that organisation’s light-welter title from Floyd’s Uncle Roger (whom he’d knocked out in two rounds previously, and now forced to retire on his stool). Tonight’s bout was for that belt, held for seven long years.

On his record, Chavez had a single loss, by split decision to Frankie Randall, in a fight where Chavez twice had points deducted for low blows (and unjustly accused referee Richard Steele of incompetence). There was also a controversial draw with Pernell Whitaker. Chavez had fought the best and had never, ever been stopped. Oscar De La Hoya was about to change that.

Unbeaten in 21 fights at this stage, Oscar was coming off a run of stoppages. As Larry Merchant said, it was a case of ‘youth, talent and ambition against experience, will and pride.’ The Golden Boy was facing his own childhood hero, the man he’d had in his sights since his debut. This was a big deal for him.

Round 1. Oscar gets a jab in to the body, then a quick right cross through Chavez’s guard. Chavez touches his brow. Oscar drives forward with the jab and lands again with the right. Blood starts to flow from a cut above the champion’s left eye. Within seconds, his face is awash with it. Referee Joe Cortez calls time for the doctor to check it out. The cut is deep. George Foreman, commentating, thinks, ‘That cut was opened in training. There’s been a big cover up.’ As it turns out, he’s dead right.
The doctor allows it to continue. Chavez turns it on, aware he has little time. De La Hoya gets in a right hand to the body and a lovely uppercut. He’s landed the cleaner punches and takes the round.

Into the second, and Oscar avoids Chavez’s jab to make him stumble off-balance and catch a left hand to the head. Oscar drives with the jab to reopen the cut. Chavez gets in a left hook but Oscar retaliates with one of his own. Chavez counters his one-two combination with a surprise right to the head. The crowd, unusually quiet to this point, begins to chant, ‘Mexico! Mexico!’ But Oscar is outworking the champion to take another round, catching him in the final seconds with a right to the body on his way in.

The 23-year-old challenger continues to work a tough jab, buzzing around Chavez’s head, stinging him constantly. Chavez is desperate to get inside where he prefers to work, is physically pushed away and looks incensed. Oscar gets a warning from Joe Cortez.

The champion comes out aggressively into the fourth, but takes a strong left on his way in. Unfazed, he continues bulling forward and lands a partially-blocked left hook to the head. Oscar gets the distance back with a long left hand, starching him with a counter hook as Chavez throws his own. Oscar slips under the Mexican’s jab to land his own to the body and upstairs. Chavez is continually short with the jab as Oscar’s footwork is terrific. As Chavez tries to pin him on the ropes, De La Hoya holds him off with a glove to the top of his head, infuriating him, and slides away. As Chavez plunges forward, he takes a strong pair of left body hooks and another left to his cut brow.

Oscar moves in to deliver an astonishing series of combinations – left jab, overhand right, left uppercut to the chin. Three left hooks, and a right to the top of the head. A pause, while Oscar circles, picking his moment, before darting back in to land another left uppercut, followed up with hooks to the head, some blocked. Another pause, as Chavez is stalked like a wounded animal at bay in centre ring, his face a bloody mess. De La Hoya delivers a double uppercut and a left hook to the ribs. Chavez forces him off, his head buried in Oscar’s shoulder, avoiding further shots on the ropes.

Cortez calls time again to look at the cut. Now the doctor isn’t happy. He stops the bout at 2 minutes 37 seconds of round four, to make De La Hoya the new WBC light-welter champion. Oscar had won all three previous rounds on the cards of all judges. Foreman: ‘He’s a phenomenon, that’s what he is.’

Oscar explained that his game plan had been to give Chavez something to think about which would distract him. ‘He’s known to get cut and have a tender nose.’ Oscar believed that he had broken that nose like he did for Hernandez.

Interviewed afterwards, Julio Cesar Chavez said that he’d been hurt on the brow previously, but after 3 months of preparation did not want to postpone the fight. He insisted that Oscar did not have great punching power. ‘I didn’t even feel his punches. I just couldn’t see because of the blood.’
Never a gracious loser, he issued a statement that Oscar had been lucky to escape because of the cut.

That wasn’t how most onlookers saw it. Larry Merchant thought, ‘The old guy was never in this fight because Oscar didn’t let him get in there. This kid is like a debutant with a knife in her purse. He looks like a Golden Boy but he has iron and lead in his gloves.’

Oscar felt Chavez’s contempt keenly, however. He would have to wait another two years to get Chavez in the ring again, and when he did he fought a very different sort of fight. Oscar stood toe to toe with the Mexican in a gruelling battle fought Chavez’s way, to prove that he could win on power punching. It wasn’t the game plan his trainers had worked out, he rarely used his terrific jab, and by the end of the fight he was more bruised up than he’d ever been before. But he forced Chavez to quit after eight rounds and admit that De La Hoya deserved his respect.

Chavez always claimed that his corner stopped that bout.