Chavez Good Enough to Earn 100th Victory

It should have been a glorious day for Julio Cesar Chavez. But Chavez conceded he has seen better days.

Chavez collected his 100th professional victory in Saturday night’s semi-main event at the MGM Grand Garden, improving to 100-2-1 with 83 knockouts by winning a unanimous decision over Larry La Coursiere in a super lightweight bout.

But although he knocked La Coursiere down in the fourth round, Chavez, 34, couldn’t put away La Coursiere, an opponent he would have dominated back in the days when he terrorized opponents in several weight divisions.

“I will look better and be prepared when I fight for the title,” said Chavez, who is expected to face Miguel Angel Gonzalez in a super lightweight championship bout.

Gonzalez (42-1, 32 knockouts) did his part to set up the match by winning his super lightweight bout Saturday night against mediocre Roberto Granciosa (31-18-3, 16 knockouts), their 10-round bout stopped after three when it was determined Granciosa should not continue.

In other preliminary fights:

* Junior lightweight Robert Garcia of Oxnard improved to 28-0 with 22 knockouts by winning a TKO victory over Angel Aldama (28-15-1, 12 knockouts). The bout was stopped at 1:09 of the fifth round of a scheduled 10-rounder.

* Lonnie Bradley (26-0-1, 20 knockouts) retained his World Boxing Organization middleweight championship by stopping John Williams (18-5, 11 knockouts) 45 seconds into the eighth round of a scheduled 12-rounder.

* And finally, despite suffering an injured right hand and a possible broken nose in the first round, Christy Martin (32-1-2, 25 knockouts) defeated Andrea DeShong in a women’s bout. The fight was stopped with 17 seconds remaining in the seventh round of a scheduled eight-rounder after Martin threw four unanswered jabs. It was the second time Martin beat DeShong, who also handed Martin her only defeat.