why did chavez choose to fight whitaker? it would of been safer going with one of the other welterweight champions. pea was not a big name but huge danger to JCC's legendary winning run i thought that they would approach maurice blocker or angel espada who was favoured to win this fight?
Chavez was the favorite. The fight really should've happened a little while earlier at 140, but oh well. I think it was at a catchweight of 145. Chavez would've been too small and gotten stopped by Trinidad IMO. Besides, Don King wouldn't put his cash cow in with a rising star like Trinidad whom King wanted to build up. The other champ, Cristano Espana, was too much risk for too little reward for Chavez. Whitaker-Chavez was a megafight with a lot of money. Who was Espana by comparison?
He wasn't a big draw, but that was a huge fight. I was only 13 then, but I was already a hardcore fan, none of my friends were, but even they knew about the fight. My uncle was a casual fan, at best, of boxing, but he was talking about it and how all the blacks at his workplace (Post Office) were supporting Whitaker and all the Mexicans supporting Chavez. It sold 750,000 PPVs and over 60,000 fans were in attendance. http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/1997/Sep-07-Sun-1997/sports/6013611.html
whitaker was a gold medal winner 3 weight world champ (at the time). JCC was a superstar. it was probably the oscar V Floyd of the times also, JCC was aiming for fourth world title floyd wasnt big with the mainstream until oscar fought him
Whitaker-Chavez was NOT like DLH-PBF. DLH-PBF was a top fighter in the sport facing another FORMER top fighter in the sport. Whitaker-Chavez was the two best fighters in the sport at the time - by quite some way - facing off against each other for all the marbles. DLH-PBF was a media event, Whitaker-Chavez never was. Popularity aside, Whitaker-Chavez was a way more meaningful fight.
Chavez chose to fight Whitaker because he wasn't a cherry picker like most guys nowadays. Whitaker was his only rival for best fighter in the sport and the fight was to decide who really is the best fighter in the world. Whitaker may not have been a huge name in the general public, but to those that knew boxing, he was a huge name. Check the p4p lists of boxing publications for the last 3 or 4 years leading up to that fight.
It was, but a fight becomes huge in the general public when it transcends the groups that were always going to be involved in that fight. Blacks and Mexicans were always going to support their own.
Whitaker was considered by most to be the 2nd best pfp fighter in the world at that time. Whitaker earned this distinction as a lightweight. Whitaker moved to 140 to get a fight with Chavez. Whitaker won a title from Pineda at 140. When it looked as though a unification with Chavez wouldn't pan out, Whitaker decided to challenge McGirt for the welterweight title. McGirt was considered by many to be the 4th best pfp(behind Terry Norris) at the time. After the McGirt fight was made, but before it occurred, a deal was struck between Whitaker and Chavez' people. If Whitaker lost to McGirt, they would be fighting a light welter unification bout. If Whitaker won, they would fight for the welterweight championship. The title they were fighting for was not as important as the fight itself. Whitaker was seen as the only threat to defeat Chavez anywhere at or below 140.
