28.05.05 – By Jeff Bastasini: Julio Cesar Chavez, in what could be final bout of his long career, won an easy, one-sided unanimous decsion over Ivan Robinson on Saturday night at the Staples Center. Chavez, 42, showed brief moments of his old brilliance, as he landed essentially at will against an equally over-the-hill, Robinson, who appeared to be nothing more than a high priced sparring partner.. In all fairness, Robinson (32-10-2) didn’t belong in the same ring with Chavez (108-5-2, 87 KO’s), regardless of it being Chavez’s final fight or not. Robinson had lost 8 of his last 13 fights, mostly to 2nd tier fighters. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine how far he’s fallen, since at one time, Robinson was 23-0, and had previously beaten Auturo Gatti, twice.
Chavez knocked Robinson down with a big right hand in the 4th round. However, Robinson got up and was able to recover. In rounds 5 thru 10, it was classic Chavez, with him landing vicious left hook body punches and powerhouse rights that would snap Robinson’s head around, as it it were on a swivel.
In the ninth round, Chavez hurt his right hand when he landed a hard punch to the head of Robinson. From there on out, Chavez limited his attacks to left hand. It hardly mattered, as Robinson was in no shape to mount any real offensive threat to worry Chavez.
Leading up to the fight, this was supposed to be Chavez’s swan song. However, after the fight, Chavez gave hints that he would continue with his career, saying “This is my last fight in Los Angeles.” Based on the attendance for the bout, why should Chavez ever retire? If he can keep packing in the fans like he did for this bout, he can go in like this for years, no matter who he fights.
For the most part, Chavez did what he had to do to win, but that being said, he still looked terribly slow, with his punches lacking any real crispness or snap. He showed little head movement, and was hit cleanly by Robinson, on the rare occasions that he decided to throw a punch in response.
The final scores were 100-88, 99-89 and 99-89, all for Chavez.