23.03.06 – By James Slater: Oscar De La Hoya has never been a guy to give many fighters a return bout. It could be argued that he defeated every one of his vanquished opponents in such a clear manner that no second bout was necessary. However, fans of Pernell Whitaker would no doubt disagree with such a notion and maybe Ike Quartey’s too. But it is a fact that in his entire career Oscar has only given one man who he had previously beaten a return fight. That man was the great Mexican, Julio Cesar Chavez. Fight one, held in 1996, ended rather abruptly with a badly cut Chavez being stopped near the end of round four. Many in attendance were unhappy and a bitter Chavez refused to give De La Hoya any credit, insisting that the cut and the cut alone had led to his loss. Without such an injury, Chavez claimed, he would defeat his young opponent. A rematch took place two years later, only the second ever return assignment in Oscar’s long career, and Julio got the fight he so craved..
The fight was set for September 18th 1998. It was a match that was contested seven pounds above the weight of their first encounter, and this time the fans got their money’s worth, with neither man having any cause to feel dissatisfied afterwards. There would be no excuses this time. Once again held in Las Vegas, it turned into a hard fought and, at times, thrilling battle. Chavez was the underdog and considered by many too small to be able to hurt De La Hoya. But Oscar, wanting to prove his machismo, deviated from his game plan and fought Chavez’s fight. He had decided to trade with him and fight on the inside. This gave Julio a chance and the war was on. Although Chavez didn’t consider Oscar a true Mexican with the same heart and fighting spirit in his blood that he had, Oscar made him pay in this slugfest. Chavez did have his moments though, and gave a much better performance than both the first fight and what the experts thought he would.
The early rounds belonged to De La Hoya and, apart from a very low blow by Chavez, for which he was sternly warned, he couldn’t hurt Oscar. By the middle rounds, however, the risk De La Hoya had taken by fighting a more physical fight looked like one he could possibly live to regret. Chavez was on his chest now and had started to land good punches with dangerous regularity. It was indeed surprising to most to see Oscar taking so many hard shots and this was another occasion when he was marked up, again showing some swelling below the eye. But, he proved his toughness as well and after a ferocious exchange at the end of round eight, in which Chavez came off by far the worse for wear, the fight was over. Julio, with his mouth badly bleeding, signalled to his corner men that he couldn’t go on. He was clearly distressed and, although he’d been doing well up until then, his corner threw in the towel and De La Hoya’s gamble had paid off. He had beaten Chavez while fighting in his opponent’s style and this time he felt far more satisfied than he had done at the conclusion of their first match up. Chavez too had no complaints this time and, while the two embraced in ring centre, he admitted that he’d been beaten fair and square. For once he showed the humility and class that befitted such a fine champion. He had nothing to be ashamed of, he knew he had given his best and, although victory wasn’t his, he had succeeded in making things very uncomfortable for De La Hoya at times, and it had been a great fight.
Chavez chose to carry on in his career afterwards and although he did get one more crack at a world title, against the Australian based Russian Kostya Tszyu for the WBC light welterweight belt, he was badly beaten in six one sided rounds in his last big fight. He looked to have finally brought down the curtain on a truly great career after a rubber-match victory over rival Frankie Randall, but soon after this fight he was to take part in a series of “farewell” bouts.
Unfortunately, he lost the second (and hopefully final) instalment in this series. There is no doubting, however, Julio’s Hall of Fame credentials. The fact that he will one day be enshrined there is a complete no-brainer.
De La Hoya’s next fight was set to be another career defining one and it was fights like this that he hoped would one day put him up on a pedestal equal to that of Chavez. He chose to defend his title in February the following year against the incredibly strong Ghanaian Ike “Bazooka” Quartey. Quartey was well known for possessing a superbly accurate and powerful jab, a jab that was as powerful as a straight right hand. He was a very dangerous opponent but once again Oscar rose to the challenge.
Still, after the close points victory that Oscar earned, a rematch was, to many minds, a far more necessary one than De La Hoya v Chavez II was. But it never happened. Who knows though, maybe Ike, as well as he seems to be doing in his recent comeback, will get a return fight yet? If so, it would be a welcome addition to the short list of rematches that have materialised in the fighting career of “The Golden Boy”.