Julio Cesar Chavez vs Danilo Cabrera

Julio Cesar Chávez retained his WBC super-featherweight championship with a comprehensive unanimous decision over Danilo Cabrera at the Hipódromo de Agua Caliente in Tijuana, Baja California, on 21 August 1987. Both men weighed 129lb. Chávez entered unbeaten at 55-0 and was making the ninth defence of the championship he had won from Mario Martinez in September 1984. Cabrera, a Dominican challenger with a 29-5 record according to the BoxRec event record, was attempting to win a world title for the third time, having previously been stopped in featherweight championship contests by Barry McGuigan and Azumah Nelson. James Jen-Kin refereed the twelve-round contest.

From the opening round, the scoring reflected a fight controlled almost entirely by the champion. All three judges gave Chávez the first round by 10-8 margins, and Cabrera never subsequently managed to win a round on any official card. Chávez’s method at this stage of his career was already well established: steady forward pressure, compact punching and an ability to work without wasting movement. Cabrera had survived difficult championship assignments before and again proved durable, but the official cards show that durability was his principal achievement on this occasion rather than any sustained success against the champion.

Chávez continued to accumulate rounds through the second, third, fourth and fifth. Terry Smith and Jerry Roth both marked the second 10-8, while Vince Delgado had it 10-9; Smith and Roth also awarded Chávez 10-8 margins in the fifth. The pattern indicates periods of pronounced superiority even though the challenger remained on his feet and continued through the full distance. Cabrera was not an inexperienced contender. He had gone fourteen rounds with McGuigan before being stopped in February 1986 and later lasted into the tenth against Nelson, but neither that experience nor his toughness was enough to alter the course of the fight in Tijuana.

The sixth was another especially one-sided session, all three judges scoring it 10-8 for Chávez. There was little change afterwards. Chávez took the seventh on every card, Roth marking that round 10-8, and swept the eighth and ninth by 10-9 margins from all three officials. Cabrera continued to provide resistance but was being outscored with unusual consistency. By the end of nine rounds, no judge had found a single completed round for the challenger. The contest had become less a question of who was ahead than whether Cabrera could survive the full championship distance.

Chávez maintained the same superiority over the closing rounds. Smith scored the tenth 10-8, while Delgado and Roth had it 10-9. All three gave Chávez the eleventh, and each marked the twelfth 10-8. Cabrera therefore completed the twelve rounds but did so without taking a round from the champion on any official scorecard. Vince Delgado returned 120-105, while Terry Smith and Jerry Roth each scored the contest 120-102. Those totals remain the clearest measure of the fight: Cabrera lasted, but he was never close to taking the championship.

The victory completed Chávez’s ninth successful defence of the WBC super-featherweight title. His reign had included stoppages of Ruben Castillo, Roger Mayweather, Faustino Martire Barrios, Refugio Rojas and Francisco Tomas da Cruz, together with distance victories over Dwight Pratchett, Rocky Lockridge and Juan Laporte. Cabrera was the last opponent Chávez faced at super-featherweight. Three months later, on 21 November 1987, the Mexican moved to lightweight and stopped Edwin Rosario in eleven rounds to win the WBA championship, beginning the next stage of his career.

The Cabrera fight was not remembered as one of Chávez’s dramatic championship contests because it contained little competitive uncertainty. Its significance lies more in what it showed about the champion immediately before his move to lightweight. Chávez was still unbeaten, had now defended his first world title nine times, and could dominate an experienced challenger over the full twelve rounds without relying upon a stoppage. Cabrera’s toughness carried him to the final bell, something neither McGuigan nor Nelson had permitted him to do in his earlier championship attempts, but the three scorecards left no argument concerning the winner. Chávez had completed his super-featherweight reign with one of its most decisive points victories.

I never saw Cabrera as a serious threat to Julio Cesar Chavez, but he was experienced and tough, having already challenged Barry McGuigan and Azumah Nelson. The problem was Chavez was 55-0 and approaching his best.

What impressed me was the discipline. Chavez never chased the knockout. He kept closing the space, working the body and making Cabrera fight at his pace. The scorecards, 120-105, 120-102 and 120-102, tell you how one-sided it was. Cabrera did not win a round.

He survived, but surviving Chavez was not the same as competing with him. Three months later, Chavez stopped Edwin Rosario for the lightweight title. This performance showed he was ready.