Underdog Chavez has tough task in rematch with De La Hoya

HE TOOK BOTH hands and rubbed them vigorously across his face, up and down his forehead in particular.

"See," said Julio Cesar Chavez. "There's no problem."

Becoming something of a notorious bleeder in his old age as a professional fighter, Chavez was attempting to dispel the widespread belief that the scar tissue above his eyes will open on contact.

It was a spirited display by a man who will be very dispirited if his Friday night fight with Oscar De La Hoya at the Thomas & Mack Center goes as expected. In spite of his 101-2-2 record, Chavez is a 7-to-1 underdog.

A loss and the 36-year-old Chavez is pushed closer to retirement or toward a less-envious, Roberto Duran-like role in a sport where he was once dominant.

Chavez discounts the possibility of losing, however.

"I'll knock him out," he said of facing De La Hoya in a pay-per-view bout that is a rematch of a 1996 fight that ended in four rounds with Chavez bleeding and a technical-knockout loser. "I have a better chin than he does. I have more courage.

"I'm going to win."

That's a tough assignment but at least Chavez appears physically fit for the challenge, although there was at least one printed report from his training camp that indicated the six-time former world champion was dogging it. Chavez trained in the remote altitude of Breckenridge, Colo., and has to be taken at his word that he's ready for De La Hoya.

"I feel very strong," he said through an interpreter. "This will be entirely different than the first fight. He feels that I'm an old man, he feels that I'm finished.

"But I'll show him what I have."

Chavez didn't last long in his first fight with De La Hoya, as the bout was stopped due to cuts. Chavez then enraged De La Hoya by saying he came into the fight with a minor cut -- the result of playing with a son -- and that the fight would have had a different outcome if it wouldn't have been for that mishap.

Two years later, De La Hoya granted Chavez a rematch and has been adamant in saying he intends to win by knockout in order to gain the older man's reluctant respect.

"How am I supposed to give him respect if I was cut before the (first) fight?" Chavez said. "It doesn't make sense. I didn't give him any respect after the fight because he didn't earn it.

"This time, if he beats me, I'll give him respect. But I hope that he gives me respect if I beat him."

De La Hoya, 25, is 28-0 and a minus 950 favorite in the Caesars Palace sports book. He's already booked for a Nov. 21 fight in Las Vegas against a tougher opponent, Ike Quartey, and based on that alone it can be assumed the WBC welterweight champion is not anticipating a lot of trouble with Chavez.

That's certainly a change from a few years ago when Chavez was a gifted, heavy-handed champion who fought and defeated one legitimate challenger after another. There were many, many memorable victories as Chavez disposed of the likes of Roger Mayweather, Rocky Lockridge, Juan LaPorte, Edwin Rosario, Meldrick Taylor, Hector Camacho and Greg Haugen before losing -- with a 90-0-1 record -- to Frankie Randall in 1994.

Since that setback Chavez's best wins have come against a slightly lesser group of fighters, headed by Tony Lopez, Giovanni Parisi, Joey Gamache and Tony Martin.

He was lucky to escape with a draw against Miguel Angel Gonzalez in March, and then was cut in defeating journeyman Ken Sigurani in June.

The general perception is that Chavez is shopworn.

"I'm not so sure about that," said promoter Bob Arum. "Anybody who looks at Chavez as an easy fight for Oscar is missing the point."

For his part, Chavez promises a one-last-hurrah type of effort. Asked when he last trained so hard for a fight, he laughed and said "it was too many years ago" as if admitting he hasn't always given his best.

It'll take his best to handle the man who has replaced him as the best of the mid-weight champions, and Chavez says he'll deliver the goods.

"That first fight we had," he said, "that was no fight at all. This time, this one is going to be a fight."

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