Now Chavez Is Fighting for Respect

He has heard the talk and read the stories, but Julio Cesar Chavez says he’s not finished as a fighter.

“It’s a fact that you all say I’m all finished by the way you’ve all been attacking me,” Chavez said through an interpreter during a news conference this week to promote his super-lightweight fight against Joey Gamache tonight at the Pond of Anaheim.

“I think this Saturday you will talk good about me. This Saturday, you will make a decision whether I still have it. But you are going to see me fighting. I think I am still a young man. I want to build a new life. I want to build a new fortune.”

Chavez’s tax troubles with the Mexican government caused a minor controversy Friday afternoon, when promoter Bob Arum furiously charged rival Don King--Chavez’s former promoter--with unsuccessfully instigating to get Chavez arrested.

According to Arum, an unnamed official in the Mexican government--without the knowledge of the Mexican tax authorities and perhaps at the request of King--asked the U.S. Justice Department to arrest Chavez this morning before the fight and extradite him to Mexico. The Justice Department rejected the request, according to Arum.

Arum is sending Chavez’s $1.5-million purse check directly to the Mexican tax authorities, who recently got a Mexican judge to issue a warrant for Chavez’s arrest. Since then, Chavez has been in America, and Mexican authorities have recently waived their warrant against Chavez, Arum said.

Chavez said his comeback from a demoralizing loss to Oscar De La Hoya on June 7 and his tax troubles begins now.

Gamache, 30, is a veteran club fighter who figures to be the first of as many as three tuneups for Chavez, 34, before he takes another crack at De La Hoya.

“You all know the results of the Oscar De La Hoya fight,” Chavez said of the loss, only the second in a 100-fight career. “I’m not going to give excuses, but I wasn’t at my best.”

On the undercard, Michael Carbajal defends his International Boxing Federation light-flyweight title against Tomas Rivera.

Times Staff Writer Tim Kawakami contributed to this story.