Oscar De La Hoya vs Julio Cesar Chavez 2

World Boxing Council welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya retained his title when Julio Cesar Chavez’s corner withdrew its man after eight rounds at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on September 18, 1998. The official time was 3 minutes of the eighth round, the interval retirement being recorded as a technical knockout. De La Hoya weighed 146½ pounds and Chavez 144½. Referee Richard Steele controlled the scheduled 12-round contest before a sellout crowd of approximately 18,500, much of it loudly supporting the Mexican challenger.

The men had first met at junior welterweight in June 1996, when De La Hoya stopped Chavez on cuts in the fourth round. Chavez maintained that the damaged left eye, rather than De La Hoya’s punches, had decided that contest and pressed for another meeting. In the intervening period, De La Hoya moved up to welterweight, defeated Pernell Whitaker for the WBC title and established himself as one of boxing’s leading attractions. He entered the rematch unbeaten in 28 contests and was making the fifth defence of his welterweight championship. Chavez, aged 36 and with more than 100 professional bouts behind him, was an 8-to-1 underdog.

Chavez gave a stronger account of himself than in the first fight. He moved forward from the opening bell, attempting to reduce De La Hoya’s advantages in height, reach and hand speed by forcing exchanges at close quarters. De La Hoya initially used his jab and quicker combinations, but he did not remain at long range for long. He was intent upon proving that the earlier result had not been merely the consequence of a cut and increasingly met Chavez in the centre of the ring.

The second round produced several hard exchanges. Chavez succeeded in drawing the champion into his preferred type of contest and landed left hooks and rights as De La Hoya stood his ground. De La Hoya answered with the faster combinations and opened a cut over Chavez’s left eye, the same eye damaged in their first meeting. The injury did not immediately become serious, and Chavez continued to advance. De La Hoya also began to show swelling beneath his left eye as evidence of the challenger’s success.

In the third round, Chavez forced De La Hoya towards a neutral corner and landed a low blow. De La Hoya stepped away and complained to Steele, pointing towards Chavez, who dismissed the protest. No point was deducted. The incident increased the ill feeling between them, and the contest continued at a demanding pace. Chavez worked to the body and looked for the left hook upstairs, while De La Hoya repeatedly found him with left uppercuts as he came forward.

Through the middle rounds, Chavez remained competitive but paid a heavy price for every success. He could still close the distance and land with both hands, yet De La Hoya’s greater speed allowed him to answer with three or four punches before moving away. The champion gradually assumed control as Chavez’s attacks became slower and the exchanges increasingly favoured the younger man. There were no knockdowns, but Chavez’s face showed the accumulating effects of De La Hoya’s punches. By the end of the fifth, the champion believed that the challenger was tiring.

De La Hoya continued to use the uppercut and left hook as Chavez pressed forward. Chavez never stopped trying to reach the body and occasionally rocked the champion with hooks and rights, but he was required to take too many clean blows on his way inside and in the seventh round De La Hoya opened another cut, this time over Chavez’s right eye. Blood ran down the challenger’s face, while De La Hoya carried a pronounced swelling beneath his own left eye.

The eighth was the hardest round of the contest. Both men exchanged freely in the centre of the ring, and their concern for defence diminished as the pace increased. Together they threw 173 punches during the round, De La Hoya landing 45 and Chavez 38. A left hook shook Chavez late in the session, after which De La Hoya drove him back with a sustained combination. An uppercut tore the inside of Chavez’s mouth and split his lower lip, leaving him bleeding heavily. De La Hoya was still punching as the bell sounded, and Chavez followed him for several steps, protesting that some of the blows had arrived late.

Chavez returned to his corner with blood coming from his mouth, nose and the cuts around both eyes. His seconds informed Steele that he would not answer the bell for the ninth. Chavez later said he had wanted to continue and that the decision belonged to his corner, but his physical condition and the punishment absorbed during the final minute made the retirement reasonable. The crowd initially reacted with disappointment, although Chavez crossed the ring afterwards and acknowledged that De La Hoya had beaten him properly.

At the finish, Anek Hongtongkam had De La Hoya leading 79–73. John Keane and Daniel Van de Wiele each scored the contest 78–75 for the champion. The overall punch figures also reflected De La Hoya’s advantage: he landed 254 of 517 punches, while Chavez connected with 162 of 346. Chavez had been more competitive than the scorecards alone suggested, but De La Hoya’s speed, accuracy and physical superiority had steadily worn him down. Unlike the first meeting, the outcome could not be attributed to a single early cut. De La Hoya had beaten Chavez through eight sustained rounds and retained the championship when the challenger’s corner refused to allow him to take further punishment.

I’ve always thought the second fight told us more about both men than the first. Julio Cesar Chavez was 36, had fought more than 100 times and was clearly past his best, but he refused to be embarrassed again. He pushed forward, worked the body and made Oscar De La Hoya fight at a far harder pace than expected.

De La Hoya had the height, reach and quicker feet, yet he repeatedly abandoned the jab and exchanged at close quarters. Tactically, it was unnecessary. He wanted Chavez’s respect after all the excuses surrounding their first fight, so he chose to beat the Mexican at his own game.

Chavez had moments with the left hook and marked De La Hoya beneath the eye, but every success cost him. Oscar’s combinations were quicker, his uppercuts found the target as Chavez came inside, and the damage steadily accumulated. Cuts opened around both eyes before an uppercut split Chavez’s lip and tore the inside of his mouth.

The eighth was fierce, but it was also the point at which the contest became unsafe for Chavez. His corner was right to stop it. He could have continued through pride, but he was behind on every card and absorbing increasingly clean punches.

This was not prime Chavez against prime De La Hoya, and nobody sensible should pretend otherwise. But Oscar did not merely defeat an old name. He met a proud, dangerous fighter who produced one final serious effort, stood his ground and broke him down properly. This time, Chavez had no legitimate excuse.