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How Julio César Chávez Jr proved he was world class – and now he's fighting Jake Paul
Looking back almost thirteen years on, it is better understood with time how consequential the fight between Julio César Chávez and Sergio Martinez was for both men.
It was along much-different paths that Martinez and Chávez had travelled to meet each other. And, afterwards, neither man would be the same.
The pair met on 15 September 2012 in a bout at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas for the undisputed middleweight championship of the world. That night, the pair were fighting for the WBC and Ring middleweight titles in front of around 18,000 fans and broadcast globally.
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Martinez was from Argentina, but had lived in Madrid, Spain, since the early 2000s. His route had been a circuitous one, rising steadily through the ranks, picking up a record of 49-2-2 (28) along the way. A former soccer player and keen amateur cyclist, Martinez made his debut in Ituzaingo, Argentina, in 1997 and stayed undefeated for three years, fighting 17 times, until Antonio Margarito stopped him in seven rounds in Las Vegas.
From there, Martinez went back to Argentina and embarked on a two-year winning streak. After moving full-time to Spain in 2002, Martinez kept on winning. He came to the UK three times in 2003 and 2004, fighting in Manchester, Bristol, and Belfast before taking more fights in Spain.
Martinez eventually made his way back to the US, where he thought Kermit Cintron and Paul Williams in world title fights. He drew against Cintron and lost a majority decision against Williams. That loss, a majority decision over twelve, was enough for Martinez to get the nod for a bout against Kelly Pavlik.
Pavlik was coming back from a drubbing at 170lbs against Bernard Hopkins. Against Martinez, he lost by scores of 115-112, 115-111, and 116-111.
It was then that Martinez became one of the great middleweight champions. He beat Paul Williams in two rounds in the rematch, then stopped Serhiy Dzinziruk in eight. The UK’s Darren Barker lasted eleven rounds, as did Matthew Macklin.
Then, it was the time for Martinez to face Chávez.
Chávez Jr, who fights Jake Paul on 28 June, shared his father’s name but little else. He is taller than his sire and fights long, relying on jabs and crosses. Rather than fight his way up from nothing, Chávez seemed to start at the top and stay there through a succession of side-of-the-road fighters.
There had been few decent names on his record since. With the exceptions of John Duddy, Marco Antonio Rubio, Andy Lee, and Peter Manfredo, most other fighters that Chávez Jr had faced had come in merely to fill in the empty space beyond Chávez’s name on the fight poster.
At the time he faced Martinez, Chávez had a record of 46-0-1 (32) and nominally held the WBC belt, but it was Martinez who was recognised at the world middleweight champion. After winning his titles against Pavlik, Martinez was ordered to face Sebastian Zbik but refused. As a result, Zbik was awarded the interim championship, which he then lost to Chávez by majority decision.
The road was set for Martinez-Chávez.
The fight took place on a warm evening in Las Vegas. Martinez, 5’10”, looked much smaller in the ring than the 6’1” Chávez. From round one to eleven, the Argentine outboxed the Mexican.
But it was the twelfth when everything changed.
According to Harold Lederman, who was scoring the fight for television, Martinez was ahead by 109-99. The official scorecards were later shown to be 110-99, 109-100, and 110-99.
Chávez had stayed on his feet for eleven rounds, having been outboxed in pretty much every round. He was bruised and swollen, but had not looked once to go to the canvas. It might have been, in losing, his best performance.
Martinez moved around, his hands down, throwing his right jab. He crouched down and forwards and looked up at Chávez like a man peering up his chimney. Chávez followed, his hands high, trying to cut down the ring.
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It was three hooks halfway through the round that nearly made Chávez into the middleweight champion of the world. The first came as Martinez was moving backwards and he went into the ropes as if he were going to tangled in them, but then he was out and Chávez threw more hooks into the space. The second landed flush and Martinez stumbled forwards into Chávez. Then the third landed, and Martinez was down.
Martinez got back to his feet, blood trickling from his eye. The referee gave him a count and then waved him back in. Chávez threw more hooks and right hands, and then Martinez was down a second time. The referee rightly said it was a slip.
There was less than a minute to go and Chávez tried to bully Martinez, who punched back at first but then began to hold on with fewer than thirty seconds left in the fight.
It was moments later and Martinez had pulled himself back into the fight. Chávez was exhausted. Martinez threw jabs to keep a distance between the two.
At the end, both men looked exhausted. Minutes after the final bell had rung, the judges came back with a unanimous decision for Martinez: 118-109, 117-110, 118-119.
The Argentine had won, and by a thick margin.
Both fighters began to decline after that fight. Chávez returned a year later with a unanimous decision over Brian Vera in California, but it was so narrow that the pair fought against six months after that. From then on, it was a mixture of wins over unknown, B-level opponents and wide losses to the A-list; failed drugs tests; and addictions. Canelo Alvarez beat him handily.
Martinez, one of the great middleweight champions, also saw his career go into a wane. He filled a stadium in Buenos Aires to fight Martin Murray, but he looked lucky to win that, before Miguel Cotto sent him into retirement in New York.
The Argentine returned after four years with a run of fights against low-level opposition in Spain. The UK’s Brian Rose looked to beat him over ten just outside Madrid, and it seemed Martinez purposefully turned down the quality of his opponents as a result. His last two fights, in his mid-forties, were against Noah Kidd, 6-6-2 (5), and Jhon Teran, 18-2 (15), in relatively small bouts in Orlando and Buenos Aires.
There was even talk, two years ago, of the 48-year-old Martinez fighting Etinosa Oliha (who also fights on DAZN in a few weeks) in Germany for the lightly regarded IBO world middleweight champion.
No rematch has ever seriously been spoken of between Martinez and Chávez Jr. It is doubtful that few would ever clamour for one. A dominant champion, one of the best of all time, outshone a limited-but-game opponent for eleven rounds.
And the opponent came close to greatness by a margin of just one or two punches.
Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr will be streamed exclusively on DAZN PPV, Saturday, June 28. Buy the PPV now here
