Fighting a Mexican named Chavez is never a piece of cake but world middleweight champion Sergio Martinez might enjoy some at a press conference in New York City Thursday afternoon. The former bike racer from Argentina fights the guy he publicly labeled a chicken, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. come Sept. 15 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. The reason for the celebratory dessert at the midtown Manhattan presser is that July 12 is a special day for Junior’s legendary fighting father, Julio Senior. Pere Chavez, born in Ciudad Obregon but raised in Culiacan, turns age 50 and the chef and cooks at the glitzy Edison Ballroom have whipped up a tasty cake to mark the occasion. I decided to mark JC’s Half Century birthday by looking back at a few of my favorite fights in which Chavez performed with his Hall Of Fame special talents. It’s difficult to pick out the best of the best for a national idol who ran up a pro record 107-6-2 with 86 really big knockouts but I’ll try me best: 1. JC SUPERSTAR MAKES HIS MARK BIGTIME. Though I later worked closely with Chavez during my stint at Don King Productions, I did not know him when I watched on TV Nov. 21, 1987, as Chavez’s persistent and painful bodypunching took all the steam out of another great fighter, Puerto Rico’s Edwin “Chapo” Rosario, for a TKO victory in 11 rounds. The WBA lightweight title was at stake. 2. THUNDER & LIGHTNING AT THE LAS VEGAS HILTON I was covering for The New York Post as behind on points Chavez snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with 12th and final round TKO over slick boxer and Olympic gold medalist Meldrick Taylor. Some still gripe about ref Richard Steele’s stoppage but I think it was a terrific call when Taylor was getting horsewhipped. It was St. Patrick’s Day, 1990, and Philadelphian Taylor was two seconds away from a decision victory of epic proportions. 3. YOU’RE FIGHTING LOPEZ, GONZALEZ…SOMETHING LIKE THAT Dallas based journeyman boxer Russell “Red Dog” Mosley was so poor he couldn’t pay attention when some guy offered him a $5,000 purse to fight someone in Mexico. The slickster never revealed who the foe was, telling Mosley it was “Lopez, Gonzalez, what’s the difference, it’s Five Thousand Dollars.” Even at and after the weigh-in, Mosley did not know who his opponent was. He was standing in the ring and he heard the ring announcer intone, “Ladies and gentleman, Julio Cesar Chavez.” Mosley was upset but could hardly escaped. The guy who booked him yelled, “Five Thousand Dollars, go get him.” You could look it up. Mosley was stopped in three rounds. Not sure if he got all of his promised purse. 4. THREE WICKED BEATINGS, CHAVEZ’S SYSTEMATIC SAVAGERY While I liked both David Kamau and Roger Mayweather as fighters and as people, there was a savage beauty in the systematic manner with which JC Superstar beat them both. Mayweather quit on his stool while Kamau lost a decision. Another memorable Chavez systematic destruction was his TKO10 stoppage of game Tony “The Tiger” Lopez in goatcentric Monterey. 5. DISPUTED DRAW AT THE ALAMODOME WITH SWEET PETE WHITAKER They called it a 12-round draw and it was a stinker to watch but 60,000 people were inside the Alamodome in San Antonio to see the two little giants cross gloves. In case anyone says American boxing needs more foreign judges to be imported here, recall that a Canadian judge only had Whitaker by a measly two points while the UK’s Mickey Vann and Franz Marti of Belgium made it a majority draw. This was a much worse decision than Tim Bradley over Manny Pacquiao, no comparison. Styles do make fights and Whitaker’s speed and clever defense made him impossible to hit for Chavez. For one night anyway, JC had a foe he couldn’t hit in the butt with a bag of rice. On the other hand, nobody got a refund. Happy Birthday, Legend!
