Chavez’s Ravine Merely a Dodge? : Critics View Him as Being Over the Hill at 33, but in Gym He Has Regained Look of Champion

Julio was too old.

Julio was too tired.

Julio was too bloated, too damaged, his legs shot, his conditioning abandoned, his motivation gone, his legend tarnished.

After fighting 99 times, after winning 97 times, after scoring 79 knockouts, after battling his way to the top of the list of Mexico’s greatest athletic heroes, World Boxing Council super-lightweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez signed for what was considered his last hurrah, a monumental finale against Oscar De La Hoya, the next great Latino fighter, at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace on Friday.

The doubters emerged before the ink was dry on the contract. Many boxing experts laughed at the suggestion this would be a triumphant final march for Chavez. They looked at his recent performances and predicted it would be more like a death march.

Indeed, at 33, Chavez looked like a poor imitation of his younger self. Where once he relentlessly punished the bodies of his opponents, now he punished his own. He drank, he did his road work by going from one late-night spot to another, he allowed flab to gather on his once-muscular frame and he struggled against fighters he would have once demolished.

Chavez acknowledged he had ballooned to 155 pounds. Others whispered he must have put only one foot on the scale. Either way, 140 pounds, the limit for the De La Hoya fight, looked like a difficult goal.

And that was only one of Chavez’s problems. In De La Hoya, Chavez would face a fighter 10 years his junior, an Olympic gold medal winner who has seemed to grow in terms of ring stature and punching power to the same degree that Chavez has faded.

Las Vegas oddsmakers, taking note, installed De La Hoya as a 3-1 favorite.

That was three months ago.

Chavez grinned. Come see me in May, he seemed to say.

*

On March 7, after a party in a large Dallas hotel as part of a nationwide tour to promote the fight, Chavez downed a tall drink and announced it would be his last until the final bell on Friday.

None of those around him have seen him take a sip since.

As the weeks have turned into months, Chavez’s resolve to recapture the form of his youth has hardened as tightly as the muscles around his middle. As the weight has come off, the speed and crispness have returned to his punches.

Chavez has not allowed anything to distract him, not even the murder of a fellow boxer and good friend in early April.

Chavez had planned to get back into shape in the isolation of Toluca, Mexico, a town of about 560,000 located 45 minutes by car from Mexico City. But those plans abruptly changed when 43-year-old Jesus Gallardo, who had joined the Chavez camp, was gunned down in a Toluca hotel April 9.

“We were friends for a very long time,” Chavez said through an interpreter.

Although Chavez continues to maintain the true target of the murders was Jesus Sanchez Angulo, a government official who was also killed in the gunfire, prosecutors maintain that Gallardo was the probable target although they have yet to make an arrest in the case.

The controversy, the anguish over Gallardo’s death and the fear that the murderers might return forced Chavez and his entourage to move out. Instead of training in the familiarity and comfort of Toluca, Chavez found himself at Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The surroundings changed, but the mind-set did not. Chavez resumed training and maintained a diligence and determination many around him had not seen in a long time.

*

It was uncomfortably hot in the Caesars Tahoe hotel ballroom, hot for the fighters sparring in the middle of a makeshift ring, hot for the fans packed in elbow to elbow, hot for the cameramen and the photographers laboring under the bright lights.

About the only person who didn’t seem to mind the heat was Chavez, the cool customer in the center of the spotlight.

His weight down to 143 pounds three weeks before the fight, Chavez finished sparring and then circled a punching bag with a smile on his face and a song on his lips. As he lashed out with a left hook followed by an overhand right, the smile turned into a wide grin, the song into a loud scream.

“Who is the best fighter?” he cried.

“Julio!” replied the crowd in unison.

“Who is going to win the fight?” he screamed.

“Julio!” answered the crowd as one.

Julio laughed and laughed. Everything seems to make Chavez laugh these days.

He appears to enjoy the fact that he is not only the emotional favorite in his country, but also here in the United States, even in Los Angeles, De La Hoya’s hometown.

When De La Hoya was booed in an appearance at the Olympic Auditorium, Chavez later said, with a twinkle in his eye, “They would not boo me in Culiacan,” referring to his own hometown.

Chavez also seems to revel in the fact that, for the first time since he became an established star, he is the underdog. For too long, he has been criticized for not living up to expectations, despite the fact that he has continued to win. Now, Chavez says, let De La Hoya carry the pressure of high expectations on his young shoulders.

“I’m old, I’m finished,” said Chavez sarcastically. “The pressure is on De La Hoya. He’s the young kid coming up. He is the favorite.”

You don’t step into the ring 100 times without learning a lot about psychology. And Chavez is using everything he has learned over the years for this fight. He plays the underdog spot to the hilt, but Chavez can also switch roles and become the mentor taking on the pupil. That’s what he does when he comes face to face with De La Hoya.

On their joint promotional tour in March, De La Hoya continually talked about how Chavez had long been his idol, how it was going to be a honor simply to step in the ring with him.

Chavez, on the other hand, would barely acknowledge De La Hoya. He rarely looked at him, even when the two posed for pictures. If was as if he was saying that De La Hoya hadn’t proved he belonged on the same pedestal as Chavez.

A superior underdog? Chavez is trying to have it both ways.

When asked if he will be the aggressor in the fight, Chavez becomes indignant.

“If they think I will go in there and follow him around like a little dog, they are wrong,” he said. “I am the champion. He has to come to me.”

Win or lose, Chavez would appear to have a lot going for him when his boxing days are over. He will receive $9 million for this fight or 35% of the gross revenue, whichever is larger. Back home in Mexico, he owns two office buildings, two gas stations, construction equipment and would also like to remain in boxing as a commentator.

But not just yet.

His rejuvenation has seemed to reinvigorate his career. When he first signed for this fight, Chavez indicated it might be his last.

Then, he hinted about fighting once more in Mexico.

But now he does not merely hint. He openly talks about fighting again, perhaps several times, if he beats De La Hoya.

Part of Chavez’s renewed interest and passion for the fight game has to do with his feeling that he is free of promoter Don King. Although King still insists he has a binding contract with Chavez, King agreed to let rival Bob Arum become the promoter for this fight in exchange for half the profits.

But Chavez makes it clear that he is through with King and the contract hassles the two continually engaged in.

“Bob Arum gives me more freedom,” Chavez said.

But he knows that, King or no King, his boxing future depends on what happens Friday.

“This fight is very special for me,” he said. “The chance to have this fight is like having a beautiful woman in front of you.”

Even once in a while, when a nerve is touched, the smile fades from Chavez’s face and he momentarily snaps out of his role as the amiable underdog, the smile replaced by the sneer of a champion seething with pride.

Asked about Jesus Rivero, the boxing guru who is training De La Hoya, Chavez says, “The fighter is born. He cannot be made.”

Asked if he feels people will look back and judge him based on this fight, he says, “I made my history. I don’t have to prove anything. I have had 100 fights and I am very proud.”

Of that last statement, there can be no doubt. Chavez may well lose to De La Hoya. But there is no longer any question that he will show up, no longer any chance he will fade away as a fat, washed-up has-been going through the motions to cash one last, big paycheck.

“I will not lose easy,” he said. “I will give my life for this fight.”

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DE LA HOYA vs. CHAVEZ

“It’s the intangibles that you must take into account. I’m sure Oscar’s camp is quite aware that Chavez may not be the Chavez of yesterday, but he’s still capable of messing up their blueprints”

Sugar Ray Leonard