Opinons on Julio Cesar Chavez?

I think Chavez is one of the top 30-35 fighters of all time. I think his win over Rosario is one of the greatest performances I've ever seen. His boxing and defense were underrated. Damn near complete fighter. I think speed gives him some trouble as we saw against Taylor and Whitaker. This fights weren't at his prime weight though. I just think that once you get to the very elite, say top 20 of all time, you're splitting hairs trying to seperate fighters. Speed and mobillity troubles Chavez and Arguello. Does it trouble Duran? Not so much, if at all. There's some seperation for me. Does Duran have a weakness Chavez or Arguello don't have? I'd have a hard time finding that. Chaves is a great, greater fighter but not as complete as a Duran or a Robinson. No way top ten and I can name 20-25 fighters I think were better. No shame in that.

 

One of the best ever at 130, very good/exlent at 135 and overratted at 140. He was past his best at 147.

 

Agree with that.

as far as combinations go i actually slightly prefer Saldivar.

 

Great fighter but not 1 of the greatest ever. He gets vastly overrated because of his padded record, and some people masterbate over him fighting 40-50 cab drivers more than most champions

Mexican legend but rates below Sanchez at no2 of all time Mexicans for me, what a fight that would be at 130lbs (but Sanchez wins )

 

Id say 135 was his best then 140 then 130. At 130 he was a great fighter one of the best 130lb guys ever top3,however i dont think he hit his peak until 135 when he fought Rosario, I disagree that he was Overrated at 140 I think hes the greatest JW of all time,at 147 he was no longer an elite fighter but still a very good one. I find it hard to believe that some of you guys can name 30 fighters better than him:-( He was around 10 ish.

 

Whats up with people saying his record is so padded,I stated earlier in a posts that Mexico has some tough fighters in the weights he started at and not all those guys were bums,but Ok say you still disagree. Well in his 40th fight he beat his 1st contender then in his 44 th beat the favored Mario martinez (a pretty goodfighter)to win the title he then followed that up by beating 19 former or current champion(at the time) Mayweather 2x,Lockridge,Laporte,Rosario,Limon,Ramirez,Fuentes,Taylor 2x,Smith,Camacho,Haugen,Randall 2-1,Lopez,Parisi,Gamache,and Draws with 2 Gonzalez and Whittaker(yey I know). Along with many wins over other top contenders he ended up with 115 fights. So even if you say the first 40 were bums. What about the othe 65 guys he beat? There is only a handful of atg that have a resume like Chavez did.

 

Chavez was brilliant. He's much higher than Barrera when it comes to greatness but I can't help saying that Barrera was the more complete fighter. He was certainly better laterally and on the backfoot. He probably wasn't as good at pressuring though.

 

My fav three Mexicans of all-time. Marquez, Sanchez and Barrera.

 

I was a big fan of Chavez. He was a warrior. I didnt expect him to beat Whitaker, I knew the style matchup was bad for him. Losing to Whitaker was no big deal anyway, regardless of the official decision.
Then one night this black dude came into the ring with a surgeons mask on and proceded to box his ears off. His demeanor after the fight, was such a turnoff, I never liked him again. I was happy for Randall, he was a good guy. He kind of reminded me of Buster Douglas going into that fight only he followed up with some decent fights after that.

 

It took him 40 fights to fight a contender And guess what Arreola wasnt anywhere near a top contender. Then he fought bums until at 44 fights he fought Martinez for a vacant belt who was a decent contender.

Now dont pretend from 44-116 fights he fought nothing but contenders, he didnt, he managed to fight 1-14-0 types and journeymen and gatekeeper types despite being a champion

Sure he had his quality wins and gets due credit for that but lets take the quality over the quantity

 

I agree 100% with this.

He is not top 20...but definately within the top 40 ever.

And though I feel this way, I still feel he is sickly overrated by too many all too often. There are some on this very site that swear to god he beat Pernell and was robbed...which is bad enough when you consider that even arguing the draw as valid is tough to do, let alone a win.

His positives IMO...

His chin was granite...no arguing that. He was relentless and efficient on offense. Put punches together very well and was a great, great body puncher. Also, he had very good inside footwork, which aided his offense.

His negatives...

Many of his wins, even after establishing himself as a top line great, often came against guys who barely deserved to be his sparring partners. Also, his defense WAS his great chin...

Many times on this site, I come off like I am not appreciative of what he has accomplished, mainly because I am on the other side of his fans in the "robbery" debate on his fight with Pernell Whitaker. But I do think he was a joy to watch and was integral in giving birth to a whole new generation of Mexican greats. And I think he gets too much flack for what happened to him "after" his prime.

(also, I think Salvador Sanchez was the greatest Mexican fighter of all time...I have him in my top 20)

That said, Pernell won 9-3...clearly.

 

:nonoArreola was a contender! I should know we fought out of the same gym (Hollenback in East LA,)he was ranked after he knocked out Lupe Pintor who was still a good fighter at the time,he was a known talent in the LA are (although underachiever) when he fought Chavez he was a top prospect. Ok Chavez fought an occasional bum after 44 fights but the majority were contenders,good journeyman or Former Champs. Regardless of some of the so called bums you said he fought he still had 29 total title defenses(most in history)so theres your quality. How some of you can say hes around 40 is absurd,name 40 that had his resume? In fact youd be hard pressed to find 10 if that!

 

Sues2nd said his defense was his great chinatsch His Defense was underrated he used to slip punches very well. I get the feeling that you started watching Chavez when he was on the downslide. Youve probably watched his fights with Randall,Whittaker, Delahoya,and Tszyu more than his Prime fights. In his prime only a guy with possibly the fastest hands of all time Meldrick Taylor was able to hit him with Regularity.