Mayweather, Chavez Square Off in Title Fight

It has been a busy week for promoter Don King. So busy, the poor man hasn’t had time to comb his hair.

For one thing, he is helping to resurrect big-time boxing locally with tonight’s Roger Mayweather-Julio Cesar Chavez World Boxing Council super-lightweight title fight at the Forum.

King is campaigning for a future match between his fighter, Julian Jackson, and International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Michael Nunn.

And he’s still found the time to work behind the scenes to finalize a deal for the next title defense of heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.

Nobody said this business was easy.

Zeroing in on the fact that Mayweather (34-5, 23 knockouts) has defeated eight consecutive Mexican fighters, King proudly announced the other day that Mayweather has come “to kill a Mexican.”

Pause. Smile.

“ In the ring , that is.”

That’s reassuring.

Moving quickly to quash any thoughts that he might be a bigot, King has bragged that “Mexican fighters love me because I promote more of their fights than anybody else. I am going to make Julio Cesar Chavez the highest-paid Mexican fighter ever.”

Explaining Mayweather’s motivation, King said, “Roger was knocked out by a Mexican, and since then, he has been trying to vindicate himself.”

The man who delivered that knockout blow was none other than Chavez, who has become a hero to Latinos. Owner of a 62-0 record with 50 knockouts, Chavez is the latest to inherit the description once reserved for Sugar Ray Robinson--greatest fighter, pound for pound, in the world.

In Chavez’s case, as in Robinson’s, it might be more than hyperbole. At 26, the native of Sonora, Mexico, has already won both the WBC super-featherweight and lightweight titles as well as the World Boxing Assn. lightweight crown.

One of Chavez’s super-featherweight title defenses came in Las Vegas, Mayweather’s hometown, in 1985 when Mayweather went down and out in the second round.

Mayweather, however, picked himself up and went on to win 14 of his next 15 fights, losing only to Pernell Whitaker by decision in a 12-round WBC Continental Americas lightweight title fight in 1987.

Mayweather subsequently beat Rene Arredondo on a sixth-round knockout in Los Angeles to win the WBC super-lightweight title in November 1987, and successfully defended it three times last year.

He decisioned both Harold Brazier and Vinnie Pazienza in Las Vegas and beat Rodolfo Gonzalez in a 12th-round knockout at Los Angeles.

In this bout, each boxer is coming off a title fight--Mayweather from his victory over Pazienza last November, and Chavez from his victory over Jose Luis Ramirez that gave him the WBC lightweight championship last October.

In Mayweather-Chavez II, each fighter will be 10 pounds heavier. In their first meeting, they fought at 130.

“I had to lose 13 pounds at the end the last time I met Chavez, including two the day of the fight,” the 28-year-old Mayweather said. “That kills any fighter. But people don’t want to hear that. The fact is I lost. I just feel at this weight, it’s going to be altogether different.”

Speaking through an interpreter, Chavez indicated he also has had weight problems.

“Three months ago,” he said, “I weighed 148. But I am ready. I think he (Mayweather) will be a little bit stronger at the additional weight. He has a good right hand.”

If that right hand does sufficient damage, it could be a breakthrough fight for Mayweather. But he doesn’t see it that way.

“You cannot say this fight will determine how great Roger Mayweather is,” he said. “Every fight determines that. If this is a big fight, how about the other 38?

“People argue about who is the best running back, Jim Brown or Walter Payton. Who is the best basketball player, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Wilt Chamberlain. The important thing is, they are all in the history books.”

Chavez already seems assured of his place in his native country, where his fans waited in a line of cars more than a mile long just to greet him at the airport after he beat Edwin Rosario in 1987 to win the WBA lightweight title.

Forum officials expect a crowd of at least 13,000 tonight and predict that the building’s all-time attendance record for a boxing match--18,796 for Ruben Olivares-Rafael Herrera in 1972--could be broken.

Each fighter will earn $750,000 plus 37.5% of the live gate after expenses.

The first undercard fight is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., with the main event, to be televised by HBO, expected to start approximately an hour later.