JULIO CESAR CHAVEZ'S BIG 5 - Part 1

THE GREAT 5 OF JULIO CESAR CHAVEZ - part 1

The famous success over the great Hector Camacho

Julio Cesar Chavez is one of the best boxers of all time. The Mexican competed between 1980 and 2005 and won world titles in three different divisions. From 1990 to 1993, he was named the best boxer by Ring magazine. He began competing in professional boxing as a super featherweight, moving through the lightweight, super lightweight, light welterweight and welterweight divisions. In his career, Chavez has played 115 matches, of which he won 107, two ended in a draw and lost only 6 matches. 86 of his wins have come by way of knockout. In a series of articles, we will reminisce about the best five fights of the great Mexican champion.

The best, most definitive match against a serious opponent for Chavez came in 1992, when he faced the Puerto Rican Hector Camacho. Macho is the world champion in the light welterweight category of the World Boxing Organization. Like Chavez, he was also in the lightweight category, where he had the right to argue for the title with the Mexican in the period 1985-1986, but a clash between them never took place.

The date on which the two meet is September 12th and the venue of the fight is the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, United States. At that point, Chavez was 81 professional wins, undefeated, and just 42 days removed from his last victory, which came in the fourth round against Frankie Mitchell. Camacho already has one professional loss, suffered by Greg Haugen 19 months before the meeting with the Mexican.

For the fans, and for both boxers, the upcoming matchup will go far beyond the dimensions of Chavez vs. Macho. It will be a match between Mexico and Puerto Rico. A match for a title, a match for pride, a match for more than glory. A fight pitting the charismatic Mexican top fighter against the pugnacious Puerto Rican, about to hand his opponent his first professional loss. Which of the two will emerge as the bigger man and the better boxer?

We don't get the answer for less than 12 rounds. When it comes to Julio's matches, they rarely last very long. It is not by chance that we paid serious attention to the number of knockout victories, it is not by chance that one of Chavez's nicknames is "Mr. KnockOut". But the meeting with Camacho is far from one of those fights. The Puerto Rican's reverse guard should be a problem for Chavez, but on the contrary. The Mexican's straight punches land right in the head of his opponent, heavy hooks almost always find Camacho's body, and the constant pressure and quality combinations that the Mexican offers go almost unanswered. By the end of the fight, the Puerto Rican boxer's face is swollen and he doesn't look good at all. However, he only got three rounds at most from one of the judges, who scored it 117:111 in Chavez's favor. The other two believe that the victory of the Mexican athlete is even more convincing - 119:110 and 120:107.

Before the start of this meeting, a melee was caused during the exit of the Mexican, which, however, did not distract him at all. After the fight, he returned to his homeland a hero and a special car, kept only for visits by the Pope, dropped the boxer off at the home of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Great champions have their great moments and without a doubt Julio Cesar Chavez's success over Hector Camacho is more than famous.