Chavez Jr. gets best win of career
by Dan Rafael
Rafael's remarks: The maturation of Chavez continued with this victory -- the best of his career -- in his third title defense. Chavez, 26, the son of Mexican legend and Hall of Famer Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., has beaten some solid opponents, including Sebastian Zbik to win a belt in June 2011 and Marco Antonio Rubio in a February defense. But Lee, in the view of many, was a grade better than those guys and many gave him an excellent chance to dethrone Chavez. That could be why Chavez seemed to take this fight more seriously than others. For a change, there was no drama surrounding his effort to make the 160-pound weight limit. Before the Rubio fight, for example, he had to cut about 16 pounds in the final three days to make weight. This time, Chavez weighed in at 159 and seemingly did not struggle to get there as he had in past fights, and he did it this time without strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, who was fired and replaced by Luis Cornejo.
Top Rank's Bob Arum, Chavez's promoter, had previously talked about matching Chavez with Lee but twice decided against it because of his southpaw style. But when England's Martin Murray, the original opponent, dropped out because of a visa issue due to his past criminal record a couple of months ago, Lee, 28, finally got the shot because he was an opponent HBO was happy to put on.
Lee, a 2004 Irish Olympian who now lives in Detroit with his Hall of Fame trainer, Emanuel Steward, sure came to fight. This was the biggest opportunity of his career and he got off to a strong start, displaying a strong straight left hand and solid jab. It was a highly entertaining fight as the boxers exchanged a lot of clean, hard punches. The fourth round was nothing but action. Although Lee opened an early lead, Chavez, with a great chin and a thudding body attack, was always in the fight. He came on slowly but surely, and Lee began to break down.
Despite complaining to trainer Freddie Roach about leg cramps after the fifth round, Chavez was still relentless in his attack. The body shots were taking their toll, and in the seventh round he finally broke Lee. After taking several body shots, Lee backed into a corner and Chavez pounced. He landed several clean shots, including a flush right hand and a left hook. Lee nearly went down while Chavez continued to tee off until referee Laurence Cole intervened at the perfect time to end the fight at 2 minutes, 21 seconds, as the pro-Chavez crowd of 13,476 went wild. (By the way, considering that Top Rank touted that it expected a crowd of maybe 40,000 when the fight was made at the Sun Bowl, the crowd has to be considered a major disappointment. It was less than Chavez's fight with Rubio.)
Lee was ahead 58-56 on all three scorecards after the sixth round, but Chavez's pressure was impressive, as was his chin. For the fight, he landed 116 of 252 shots (46 percent) while Lee landed 121 of 420 punches (29 percent). Lee was certainly busier, but he just did not have the same kind of thunder in his blows that Chavez's more damaging punches did.
With Lee vanquished, Top Rank's Bob Arum announced that Chavez would, at long last, face lineal middleweight champion Sergio Martinez -- who has been calling out Chavez for more than a year -- on Sept. 15 on HBO PPV at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Chavez was already talking smack, saying after the fight, "I'm going to knock him out and shut his mouth."
Rival Golden Boy Promotions has already announced that Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, Mexico's other big star besides Chavez, will defend his junior middleweight belt against Victor Ortiz on Sept. 15 -- Mexican Independence Day -- on Showtime PPV at the MGM Grand, about a mile down the street from the Thomas & Mack Center. It's all posturing right now. It would be stupid for the promoters, the fighters (who share in pay-per-view revenue) and the networks to counter-program each other with two attractive fights that target the same audience. On Sept. 15, no matter what the sides say right now, it is highly unlikely that there will be two major pay-per-view shows on the same date in the same city. The question is, which side will blink?
by Dan Rafael
Rafael's remarks: The maturation of Chavez continued with this victory -- the best of his career -- in his third title defense. Chavez, 26, the son of Mexican legend and Hall of Famer Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., has beaten some solid opponents, including Sebastian Zbik to win a belt in June 2011 and Marco Antonio Rubio in a February defense. But Lee, in the view of many, was a grade better than those guys and many gave him an excellent chance to dethrone Chavez. That could be why Chavez seemed to take this fight more seriously than others. For a change, there was no drama surrounding his effort to make the 160-pound weight limit. Before the Rubio fight, for example, he had to cut about 16 pounds in the final three days to make weight. This time, Chavez weighed in at 159 and seemingly did not struggle to get there as he had in past fights, and he did it this time without strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, who was fired and replaced by Luis Cornejo.
Top Rank's Bob Arum, Chavez's promoter, had previously talked about matching Chavez with Lee but twice decided against it because of his southpaw style. But when England's Martin Murray, the original opponent, dropped out because of a visa issue due to his past criminal record a couple of months ago, Lee, 28, finally got the shot because he was an opponent HBO was happy to put on.
Lee, a 2004 Irish Olympian who now lives in Detroit with his Hall of Fame trainer, Emanuel Steward, sure came to fight. This was the biggest opportunity of his career and he got off to a strong start, displaying a strong straight left hand and solid jab. It was a highly entertaining fight as the boxers exchanged a lot of clean, hard punches. The fourth round was nothing but action. Although Lee opened an early lead, Chavez, with a great chin and a thudding body attack, was always in the fight. He came on slowly but surely, and Lee began to break down.
Despite complaining to trainer Freddie Roach about leg cramps after the fifth round, Chavez was still relentless in his attack. The body shots were taking their toll, and in the seventh round he finally broke Lee. After taking several body shots, Lee backed into a corner and Chavez pounced. He landed several clean shots, including a flush right hand and a left hook. Lee nearly went down while Chavez continued to tee off until referee Laurence Cole intervened at the perfect time to end the fight at 2 minutes, 21 seconds, as the pro-Chavez crowd of 13,476 went wild. (By the way, considering that Top Rank touted that it expected a crowd of maybe 40,000 when the fight was made at the Sun Bowl, the crowd has to be considered a major disappointment. It was less than Chavez's fight with Rubio.)
Lee was ahead 58-56 on all three scorecards after the sixth round, but Chavez's pressure was impressive, as was his chin. For the fight, he landed 116 of 252 shots (46 percent) while Lee landed 121 of 420 punches (29 percent). Lee was certainly busier, but he just did not have the same kind of thunder in his blows that Chavez's more damaging punches did.
With Lee vanquished, Top Rank's Bob Arum announced that Chavez would, at long last, face lineal middleweight champion Sergio Martinez -- who has been calling out Chavez for more than a year -- on Sept. 15 on HBO PPV at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Chavez was already talking smack, saying after the fight, "I'm going to knock him out and shut his mouth."
Rival Golden Boy Promotions has already announced that Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, Mexico's other big star besides Chavez, will defend his junior middleweight belt against Victor Ortiz on Sept. 15 -- Mexican Independence Day -- on Showtime PPV at the MGM Grand, about a mile down the street from the Thomas & Mack Center. It's all posturing right now. It would be stupid for the promoters, the fighters (who share in pay-per-view revenue) and the networks to counter-program each other with two attractive fights that target the same audience. On Sept. 15, no matter what the sides say right now, it is highly unlikely that there will be two major pay-per-view shows on the same date in the same city. The question is, which side will blink?
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