DE LA HOYA vs. CHAVEZ DAILY REPORT : King Gets In First Damaging Blow by Suing Chavez for $1.35 Million

For Julio Cesar Chavez, the much-anticipated, long-awaited fight has begun.

No, not the fight against Oscar De La Hoya at Caesars Palace. That one won’t start until tonight.

But Chavez’s other battle, the one to break away from promoter Don King, has already begun in court.

Although he continues to insist that he has a valid contract with Chavez, King has sued to recover $1.35 million he claims the boxer owes him in loans and expenses.

According to sources, Chavez is planning on counter-suing King.

At the crux of the dispute is wording in the contract that stipulates that the legal bond between the pair is null and void two years after Chavez loses his title.

He did indeed lose his World Boxing Council super-lightweight title to Frankie Randall in January 1994 on a split decision.

But Chavez came back four months later to regain the championship via an eighth-round knockout of Randall. King maintains that Chavez’s recapturing that title keeps the contract valid.

In exchange for half of the promotion profits from tonight’s fight, King had agreed to put his legal battle on hold. But 48 hours before fight time, he struck the first blow against Chavez.

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King has been bragging to reporters that, whatever his own feelings about Chavez, he has bet an amount somewhere in excess of $600,000 on Chavez, tonight’s underdog, to win.

Asked about it Wednesday, Chavez indicated, through the use of an expletive, that he didn’t believe King.

Such a bet would not violate any Nevada laws. Promoters are free to wager on fights they are involved with, as are managers and even the fighters themselves.

“The Gaming Commission has said it is legal,” explained Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission.

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Caesars Palace, site of some of boxing’s greatest fights, has issued a hotel-record 1,500 media credentials for tonight’s fight.