By Keith Idec
LAS VEGAS – Oscar De La Hoya’s two wins against Julio Cesar Chavez are mostly remembered as a bigger, younger rising star twice beating an aging legend.
Their first fight was stopped in the fourth round in June 1996 because of multiple cuts around Chavez’s eyes, particularly a nasty gash that opened over Chavez’s left eye in the first round. Their rematch was more competitive than their first fight, yet still resulted in Chavez taking a lot of punishment and declining to come out of his corner for the start of the ninth round in September 1998.
On Thursday night, though, De La Hoya revealed that their rematch wasn’t quite the easy victory as it might’ve seemed. As part of a public question-and-answer session at MGM Grand Garden Arena, De La Hoya admitted that Chavez hurt him badly with a right hand in their second fight.
Chavez, who was 36 when he fought a 25-year-old De La Hoya the second time, didn’t realize he hurt De La Hoya and thus didn’t follow up on that punishing punch. De La Hoya didn’t state the round in which Chavez hurt him during their WBC welterweight title bout, but admitted he suddenly became very vulnerable to a knockout loss that would’ve completely changed the course of the six-division champion’s Hall-of-Fame career.
“In our second fight, he hit me with a right hand right on the button. Boom!,” De La Hoya told ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna, who moderated the event. “And my legs just turned into Jello or spaghetti. I was out. But he just let me go because I was just so focused. This guy had a good right hand.”
Chavez, who maintains a respectful relationship with De La Hoya, joked, “You should’ve told me. We could’ve had the third fight.”
The event Thursday night included De La Hoya, Chavez and rivals Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales.
Before admitting Chavez hurt him badly in their rematch, De La Hoya joked that his father and uncles still haven’t forgiven him for beating Chavez in their two fights. De La Hoya has repeatedly referred to Chavez as his idol this week and reiterated Thursday night that he considers Chavez the best fighter from Mexico in boxing history.
The question-and-answer session was part of fight week events leading up to Saturday’s showdown between Chavez’s son, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and Canelo Alvarez, the flagship fighter for De La Hoya’s promotional company. The Mexican showdown between Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) and Chavez (50-2-1, 32 KOs, 1 NC) will headline HBO Pay-Per-View’s four-fight telecast Saturday night from T-Mobile Arena (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT; $69.99 in HD).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
