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 News from Around the Americas | May 2005 
Goodbye Again, Chavez Farewell Tour Continues
 Anthony Evans - SecondsOut.com
| | Well, he's looking in shape... (Photo: Tom Hogan) |
When Mike Tyson was in jail for rape a Mexican called Julio Caesar Chavez became promoter Don King's - and boxing's - hottest ticket. His battles with Edwin Rosario, Jose Luis Ramirez, Angel Hernandez, Hector Camacho, Meldrick Taylor and the others established him as boxing's own 'JC Superstar'. More than merely the best in the biz at the time, the Culiacan native made the term 'pound for pound' fashionable once more and sold a blizzard of tickets while annexing world titles in three different weight divisions.
Now, in 2005, Chavez, like Tyson, finds himself punching for a pension after somehow waking up around 40 without the $millions earned during his Hall of Fame career. Chavez is too proud a man to accept handouts so, Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, (on a Showtime pay-per-view) Chavez has a third successive 'farewell fight' in what is effectively a fundraiser for a warrior who has fallen on hard times.
Chavez fights Ivan Robinson, who is similarly shop-worn despite his comparative youth at age 34, over 10 rounds as part of a Top Rank promoted pay-per-view.
Don't feel too sorry for Chavez. No-one forced this once great fighting machine to become a drunk (he says he's been sober for six month, trying to set an example for son Julio Junior, who also fights on the card) and his current financial worries are, ultimately, Chavez's own doing.
Chavez has bid his fans farewell before. He avenged a loss to Willie Wise in 2003 in Tijuana, Mexico and then won a belated rubber match with Frankie Randall, the first man to beat him, last May. Now comes the latest - and I hazard to guess not the last - chapter in boxing's answer to 1970s rock group Kiss's 'Farewell Tour' which is been running since 1998.
The fight itself will be competitive, if far from vintage. The Chavez pride will be extinguished only with the old man's death and he can still turn it on for a few seconds each round. Robinson is nearly a decade younger but isn't in the best of form, either.
How far has Robinson regressed since he beat Arturo Gatti - twice - seven years ago? Well, he was stopped in eight by hapless Ricky Hatton victim Mike 'No Joke' Stewart two years ago and has fought only twice since, losing one and winning one on points.
Chavez was greeted like royalty while on a whistle-stop tour to promote this event and the former champion supreme says he's missed the sport which he used to master. Fans remember his glory nights, and the memories are too powerful to every fully faded no matter if he quit on his stool v Oscar De La Hoya back in 1998 or a couple of other hollow performances.
That fight, against De La Hoya in September 1998, was the last time we glimpsed the true JC Superstar. He gave all he had, or all he could, against a younger, faster, bigger opponent and it would have been a good end to a wonderful career. But not even 'Rocky' was allowed to retire to swimming pools and tequilas.
Robinson still has a good jab and could win this bout with that alone but, with over 12,000 Chavez fans in attendance, it is hard to see him winning it on points if the old legend is even moderately competitive.
******
Best fight on the card sees former champs Jesus Chavez and Carlos Hernandez clash in a super-featherweight eliminator. Both are coming off losses to Erik Morales but, in a fight which can't fail to be entertaining, I side with Hernandez. |
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