Chavez’s Mixed Signal Was Clear to Doctor : Boxing: Fighter’s shake of the head after he suffered a gash over his right eye against Randall meant he couldn’t go on, ring physician says.

Julio Cesar Chavez shook his head. Twice.

For Chavez, it wasn’t no mas, it was no loss.

With ring physician Flip Homansky, referee Mills Lane and an audience of millions peering in for signs that Chavez could continue despite suffering a large cut over his right eye, Chavez, possibly misunderstanding their questions and possibly battered into bleariness, answered in the negative.

To Homansky, who said he wasn’t sure if the cut was enough to stop the fight, Chavez’s body language was clear: He wanted to quit.

“I went into the ring to evaluate, and it was a nasty gash,” Homansky said. “It was my impression that Chavez didn’t want to continue. He shook his head twice to me. That was enough--and the cut was a very bad cut from the clash of heads.

“The cut was bad enough to stop, but if he had wanted to continue, I probably would have let him.”

According to World Boxing Council rules, that decision, with two seconds remaining in the eighth round, sent Saturday night’s Chavez-Frankie Randall rematch at the MGM Grand to the scorecards--with an extra penalty point assessed to Randall, also according to WBC rules, for the unintentional butt that caused the Chavez gash.

And though Randall appeared to be causing far more damage to Chavez than the other way around--in a power style very similar to his dominating performance in their first meeting--two judges had Chavez ahead, one judge had Randall leading. That gave Chavez back the WBC super-lightweight title he lost to Randall on Jan. 29, although in far less clear-cut manner than Randall’s victory in the first bout.

After the rematch, Chavez, who said he was gearing up for a big push in the final three rounds, insisted that his head shaking--and a shouted answer that was undiscernible on a tape of the bout--was meant to tell Lane and Homansky that he did not want the fight stopped.

But Chavez’s trainer, Emanuel Steward, conceded that Chavez’s main reaction to the butt--which opened the first major cut in his career--was to cease fighting.

“He was bleeding, and it was something he had never experienced in his career,” Steward said. “He was very emotional and he just panicked. It was an instinctive thing.”

Chavez said he was not satisfied with the result, adding that he wants another rematch with Randall. That bout is tentatively set for Sept. 17 at the MGM.

Said Randall: “Yeah, I felt like I was robbed. I feel like I dominated the fight. You noticed I hit him with shots in the second and third round that hurt him.

“In the eighth round, (the clash of heads) happened, but in the ninth round, I would have had him under my guns. I was going to knock him out.”

Boxing Notes

Showtime will replay Saturday’s four title fights in two shows: Saturday at 10 p.m. PST it will broadcast James Leija’s victory over Azumah Nelson for the WBC super-featherweight title and Terry Norris’ defeat of Simon Brown for the WBC super-welterweight title. On Sunday, May 15, also at 10 p.m., Showtime will replay the Julio Cesar Chavez-Frankie Randall bout and Gerald McClellan’s first-round knockout of Julian Jackson to retain his WBC middleweight title.