Just rewatched it and while it was not what you would call it a close fight Chavez kept it competitive than I realised. Best performance from him in a while buy Oscar was just too big and too strong. While his punches were very short and compact he managed to graze Oscar and make his eye swell. Thoughts about the fight
Chavez definately did better than the first fight. He was at massive disadvantages in size and speed but landed a lot of good solid shots and actually fought very well in spurts before Oscar's physical advantages eventually became too much for him. Chavez copped a lot of flak for quitting on his stool but imo he'd done his very best against a bigger,excellent fighter and had nothing more to give.I certainly don't hold his surrender against him.
Nope. He was a different fighter at the end of his career mentally when he came across fighters such as this IMO. People like Laporte and Lockridge earlier in his career hit Chavez with more punches yet he did not wilt.
Yeah. But against La Porte and Lockridge Julio was at least battling more or less on even terms,De La Hoya was always in command of this fight and Chavez knew he didn't have what it took anymore,hence the surrender. Still I don't think Chavez has anything to be ashamed of here.His display against Frankie Randall 2 was more worthy of criticism than this.
I suppose yeah. What always interested me about Chavez was how much the judges loved him. Despite such close fights with Laporte and Lockridge judges had him winning by a mile. Also despite getting dropped and having 2 points taken of him Chavez still lost a SD to Frankie Randall in the first fight, also in the second one there was some controversy I believe. One of the judges had him beating Meldrick Taylor on points which I find ******ed. Also his draw with Miguel Angel Gonzalez was apparently undeserved. You seen that fight griffo and if so what did you think of the decision. Its on youtube but the quality is pretty awful, very jumpy.
I saw the Gonzalez fight a long time ago and I remember it as close but I thought Gonzalez won. What I do remember was the crowd sentiment was massively behind Chavez and everything he did elicited a massive crowd response which was strange considering it was an all Mexican match up but the love affair the crowds had with Chavez was amazing. Possibly this had a large bearing on the drawn outcome. Chavez did get his share of dubious decisions going his way but I'll cut him some slack for the Taylor fight.He did a massive amount of damage that fight that got more or less ignored by the HBO commentory team.He was behind but it was close. Even worse was the Chavez-Mayweather rematch which Harold Lederman scored a shutout through 7 Mayweathers way,despite Chavez being well in charge all fight. So he did get his share of gifts but he didn't get it all his own way.
DLH was just too fast. THe size was a factor but at that point in JCC career the speed of DLH was too much for him.
Nobody has mentioned the main reason why Chavez gave problems in this fight. He never rushed at him and went full out with aggression. Chavez actually hung back and boxed De La Hoya at times.
Timing was key for Chavez in this fight. He managed to catch De La Hoya at long range on a few ocassions. Especially during the early rounds. I can remember he spun De La Hoya around 90 degrees just before the bell in one of the early rounds with a right hand from distance.
Yep. Reflexes. But the shoe was on the other foot for Chavez and he was the old guy facing youth with pedigree. Same thing happened to Oscar himself later on. It really is rare when the old name guy beats the young champ with the big advantage in reflexes. It's nice to see when it does happen on occasion, but usually it's changing of the guard time and it happens to nearly everyone.
Do you recall back then all the people that thought Chavez could ko Norris if he moved up to 154? All because Norris couldn't take a punch, so therefore that's what the outcome of the fight would be? And Norris was willing to drop weight to make the fight? Man, the difference in reflexes between a prime 24 year old Norris and old Chavez would be on par with Holmes--Ledoux.
I knew all along that Chavez would never fight Norris at 148 to 154 pounds... Norris was too big, strong and fast for the smaller and older Chavez all the way around... Thank Amon Ra that mismatch never occurred... WORD! MR.BILL
But there were folks that thought Chavez actually would ko the guy. I didn't think he would even win a 1 minute increment of a round at that point in time. But not everyone agrees, do they? Norris hasn't stood the test of time well, but that guy had lightning reflexes and threw every punch in the book. I'm sure he backs up Chavez from the opening bell and if Chavez didn't go down, his skin by that stage of the game was not going to hold up against the kind of shots Norris threw.