Is Julio Cesar Chavez the most OVERRATED fighter ever?

Absolutely. and Arguello as well.
Chavez was tough , but basically a catcher.

 

Chavez is the highest ranked fighter of the era. Only Pacquiao is debatable. Morales is right there behind them.

 

Well prime on prime, he'd beat Pacquiao.

 

^^I have Whitaker ranked over Chavez Sr. I feel he did more than enough in their megafight back in the 90's to secure placement over Chavez in terms of overall legacy.

Also, in the 90's Chavez Sr's undefeated record was pretty dam protected. I remember him losing clearly to Pernell WHitaker, Frankie Randall both times, and if Meldrick taylor didn't look at his cornerman instead of looking directly in the refs eyes and responding to him, he would've chalked up his first defeat back in 1990, because up to that point Taylor was whitewashing him. It was such a BS stoppage.

Still, he is an ATG, was able to accrue an insane amount of wins on his record, and he did take on a lot of top notch fighters even if his resume was littered with tomato cans early on.

 

Duran would have murdered him.

 

I personally feel Sanchez was better, accomplished by the time he was 23 what most don't do in a career, beating the greatest Puerto Rican fighter ever as well as the greatest African fighter ever. Chavez with that many pro fights, of course he's going to fight cans, you need to get your head out your ass if you think he wouldn't face cans, just like Joe Louis and Tyson. BUT, Chavez DID face every challenge put in front of him, 130-135 was his prime weight and even at 140 still good enough to beat America's best at the time. He was avoided for a good part of his career too.

 

Chavez or Monzon or Ali.

 

Then your memory is faulty. Though Taylor may have been ahead on points, all you had to do was look at their faces. Taylor had been hit much harder throughout the fight. At the end, he was running on fumes until JCC delivered the coup de grâce. Would Taylor have won the fight by decision? Probably but Steele still did the right thing in stopping it. Taylor was never the same after that fight.

 

37 title fights is staggering, winning 31 and making 27 defenses over 3 weight classes, winning 21 by KO is equally crazy.

It doesn't really matter who thinks who could have beat him, or that someone has a problem with his keep busy fights, those numbers are irrefutable, and at the world championship level, not exactly bumland. Every fighter has a following who thinks he is better than he actually is....but to say Chavez is the most over rated is ridiculous.

 

Your talking about somebody hating Chavez because he's Mexican, but your clearly naming these three guy's because they are black!

 

Depends on who's rating him. Sr was tough fight for anyone, though not a true H2H nightmare like a younger Duran.. but then who the **** really is?

I think most boxing historians would have JCC in the 30-50 range of all-time.. which means he was ****ing great.. but no where near the greatest.

 

Great fighter but over rated as hell. Still great just not the Top 10 ATG I hear some people claim he is.

 

Dont just judge him by his record or who he fought, think about what he meant to boxing in the late 80s early 90s. He was the little man who carried boxing after SRL retired. Chavez was P4P #1 and rightfully so. Only Mike Tyson was a bigger draw than Chavez Sr. He also represented Mexican pride/boxing better than any fighter I've ever seen.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei7YkW12iAs

Whoever says JCC had no defense is just a troll. He does little things that help avoid punches that would otherwise hurt him. He was an incredibly aggressive fighter obviously he is going to get hit. You don't see him dancing around the ring sure but theirs other types of defense. His defense suited his style perfectly.

 

The arguments I hear against JCC are rather ridiculous.

His resume for a start is full of "bums", "cans", "Mexican taxi drivers" or whatever disrespectful words you want to call these guys, but this is understandable. The guy had virtually no amateur experience so he needed a lot of fights against weak opposition to build up his skills. He was essentially learning on the job. Once he was at world level he generally fought the best out there. There weren't many top legitimate challenges that he avoided. Yes he had fights in between these big fights against so-so opposition, but does that really matter?

People today moan that top fighters only fight twice a year. JCC was a throwback fighter to decades past where fighters fought regularly. Yes, all opponents weren't world class, but 1) you would burn yourself out quickly fighting elite fighters constantly, and 2) if you have over 100 fights in your career, statistically you are going to fight some non- top 10 fighters. If a fighter ducks no one and fights the best challenges out there then I don't mind how many keep busy/top up the retirement fund fights they have. Instead of castigating Chavez for these lesser fights he should actually be shown some respect for winning and performing well in these "hard to get up for" fights. Many a fighter has lost a fight against inferior opposition as they didn't take the fight serious. JCC always won and often looked good doing it in these smaller, less significant fights.

As for JCC having no defence; go watch his fights again. For a man who was nearly always in the pocket he didn't get hit clean as often as you would think. He was great at blocking, parrying and rolling with punchers. He was also an offensive beast, especially at the lower weights, and he was one of the best body punchers ever.

Whenever I hear unsubstantiated attacks on JCC I am always left with the feeling the person doing the attack has only ever watched the Taylor and Whitaker fights and got the rest of their JCC education from Boxrec.