Jesús Chávez

Jesús Auerelio Chávez (born November 12, 1972) is a Mexican professional boxer in the lightweight division. He is the former NABF, WBC Super Featherweight and IBF Lightweight Champion.^[1][2] He fights with the nickname El Matador, meaning "The Killer", in honor to his first gym, Tom O`Shea's Northwestern Settlement Matadors in Chicago.

Early life

Chavez was born in Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico and raised in Chicago.^[3] He became a legal U.S. resident as a child, but at age 16 he was convicted of being an accessory to armed robbery, spent four years in prison, and was subsequently deported back to Mexico. Nevertheless he struggled to regain American citizenship and work his way up in boxing ranks.

Career

Chávez's first title opportunity came against WBC Super Featherweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. where he was knocked out in the 9th round after an entertaining bout. He rebounded to win Mayweather's vacated WBC title, but lost it to then two-time champion Erik Morales. In another exciting fight, Chávez rocked Morales early in the first round. Morales recovered and knocked Chávez down twice in the 2nd round, but Chávez came back and fought hard for the rest of the fight, despite having a torn rotator cuff and torn ACL. Morales won a close decision, but Chávez gained further respect for his effort.^[4] In his next fight, he took on former IBF Champion Carlos Hernández, who in turn had also lost his own title to Morales. In an exciting 12-round war, Chávez pulled out a close decision.

Leavander Johnson's death

He then moved up to the Lightweight division to take on IBF champion Leavander Johnson. In an unfortunate bout, Chávez out-hustled Johnson throughout the entire fight, beating him severely for the entire fight until the referee finally stepped in and ended it. Johnson died several days later when he went into a coma. Despite being implicated in the tragedy, Johnson's family encouraged Chavez to keep fighting.

In 2007, Chavez lost his IBF title to Julio Díaz.^[5][6][7]

On September 6, 2008, Jesus "El Matador" Chavez, (44-4 with 31 Win by TKO) knocked out visiting Andres Ledesma,of Colombia 42 seconds into the 9th round of their lightweight bout, at the Toyota Center, in Houston, Texas. Chavez, of Austin, also floored Ledesma in the 7th round.^[8]

On April 4, 2009, Chavez was defeated by Michael Katsidis via 8th round TKO. He is trained by Richard Lord.

Personal life

His struggle to attain legal U.S. residence and work his way up the boxing ranks was documented in the film "Split Decision".^[9] His life story was also documented in the book "Standing Eight: The Inspiring Story of Jesus El Matador Chavez".^[10] In 2004, Chavez married US National Guard intelligence officer Anuisa Stroklund before she was deployed to the war in Iraq. The couple now resides in Austin, Texas.^[11]

See also

• List of lightweight boxing champions
• List of WBC world champions
• Reigning boxing champions

References

Further reading

• Jan Reid, The Bullet Meant for Me: A Memoir, Broadway, 2002, ISBN 0-7679-0595-4
• Adam Pitluk, Standing Eight: The Inspiring Story of Jesús "El Matador" Chávez, Who Became Lightweight Champion of the World, Da Capo Press, 2006, ISBN 0-306-81454-4

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jesús Chávez.

• Jan Reid, The Contender, Texas Monthly, April 1998.
• Belinda Acosta, The Inspiration of Jesus Chavez, The Austin Chronicle, February 9, 2001.
• Marcy Garriott, Feature documentary SPLIT DECISION, First Run Features, 2004, ASIN B00013F2U4.
• Professional boxing record for Jesús Chávez from BoxRec

Succession