De La Hoya repeats beating of Chavez

LAS VEGAS - Oscar De La Hoya wanted a knockout. He had to settle for a mere beating.

De La Hoya battered a game but overmatched Julio Cesar Chavez into a bloody mess for the second time in two years Friday night, with Chavez's cornermen refusing to allow their fighter to come out for the ninth round.

The knockout didn't come, but the respect finally did after a bruising eight rounds that saw Chavez take some major punishment while still staying on his feet.

"It was even more satisfying that he quit on me," De La Hoya said. "I didn't get the knockout, but he didn't want any more of me."

Chavez gave De La Hoya his due, and said he would likely fight only once more before finally retiring.

"I said the first fight was not a fight and that this was going to be a great fight" Chavez said. "Now I give him all my respect."

De La Hoya remained undefeated and retained his WBC welterweight title in a fight that brought out the best in the 36-year-old Chavez, who fought as well as he had in years.

It wasn't enough, however, against a man bigger, stronger, quicker and 11 years younger.

"I beat the old Chavez, the best Chavez anyone has seen in the last five years," De La Hoya said.

De La Hoya couldn't put Chavez down, but he made him pay a terrible price for staying upright, cutting him over his eyes in the early rounds and then opening a deep gash on his lower lip in a savage eighth round.

Chavez still appeared to have some fight left in him, but his corner told referee Richard Steel he wouldn't fight any longer, a decision Chavez didn't protest. De La Hoya leaped in the air in jubilation and his cornermen joined him in celebration.

"I could have gone in this fight and stayed on my toes and outboxed him," De La Hoya said. "But people don't want to see that. They want to see a fight."

The satisfaction De La Hoya didn't get from his first win made this win even sweeter in a brawl that had the crowd of 17,125 cheering on their feet.

Chavez later claimed he still wanted to fight, but De La Hoya said he told him in the ring that he had enough.

"He hit me a few times, but a real champion takes that," De La Hoya said.

Chavez and De La Hoya had just finished the most intense exchange of the fight, a one-minute war late in the eighth round that saw both fighters trade punches when Chavez walked back to his corner.

Blood was flowing from a deep cut on his lower lip and from his nose, and there were cuts over both eyes.

Chavez fought gallantly but took the brunt of De La Hoya's punches throughout the fight and was well behind on all three scorecards when his corner called the fight.

The fight was a brawl from the early rounds, as De La Hoya pressed for the knockout he wanted to gain the respect he claims he didn't get from Chavez the first time they met.

"It wasn't that he was strong. I just didn't have a smart game plan. That's why the fight seemed so tough," De La Hoya said.

De La Hoya, who stopped Chavez on cuts in the fourth round of their first fight two years ago for the junior welterweight title, was an 8-1 favorite in the rematch in the heavier weight class.

Chavez hardly fought like an underdog, though, bringing glimpses of his past greatness into a fight that figures to be his last big-money event. De La Hoya earned at least $10 million, while Chavez was to receive some $6 million.

Punch stats showed De La Hoya threw 517 punches to 346 for Chavez and landed 254 to 162. But Chavez kept pressing forward and never backed off of exchanges in the middle of the ring as the fight turned into a brawl.

Chavez, who weighed in at 144 1/2 , had vowed to look like the old Chavez, and he did at times. But De La Hoya was simply too strong and too quick.

De La Hoya, 146 1/2 , who defended his 147-pound title for the fifth time, moved to 29-0 with 24 knockouts. Chavez dropped to 101-3-2.

De La Hoya is already set to fight undefeated Ike Quartey on Nov. 21.

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