9. Julio Cesar Chavez (108-6-2 87 KO)

Born: July 12, 1962

 

Chavez is widely regarded as the greatest fighter boxing-rich Mexico has ever produced and his 32 wins in championship fights is a ring record. In fact, his 32-4-2 mark in title bouts would be a decent career record these days.

 

'The Lion of Culiacan'  had eighty-six knockouts in one-hundred and seven fights posted across three different decades, it is not normal for a fighter who retired as recently as 2005. That he posted just six official losses, the first coming only after his fourteenth year as a professional fighter is even more astonishing.  His habit of winning was matched only by his habit of hoovering up titles.

 

He won a vacant super-featherweight strap in 1985 against the favored veteran Mario Martinez via an eighth round stoppage.   In total he made nine defenses of his strap and at the time of his move up to lightweight his record stood at 55-0.

 

His first fight at lightweight was, naturally a title fight, and arguably his finest moment as he weaved an offensive tapestry that forced the aggressive and brilliant Edwin Rosario back to the ropes time and time again.  Making his man miss repeatedly up close even as he threaded his own blows through the eye of the proverbial needle, Chavez exposed Rosario’s defense, which was excellent, and offense, which was superb, arguably winning every single round on the way to a late stoppage.  Three more defenses of that strap followed, one of them making him linear champion, the eleventh round technical decision over Jose Luis Ramirez, then it was off to light-welterweight.

 

Chavez was a hair past his best form by the time he wore down Mayweather in 10 rounds to win the WBC light-welterweight title in May 1989, yet he was able to notch 16 defences over two reigns and unified the WBC and IBF belts with his unforgettable last-second stoppage of Meldrick Taylor.  Perhaps the most controversial stoppage of all time at the very end of the twelfth in a fight he was losing against an opponent who claimed he was able to continue—but who did not respond in time for referee Richard Steele.

 

'El Gran Campeon' won his first 87 fights, and there was serious talk among historians that he could have unseated Sugar Ray Robinson as the consensus pound-for-pound greatest if he had retired with a 100-0 record. Alas, it was not to be.

 

Chavez failed in two attempts to win his fourth divisional title against welterweights Pernell Whitaker (D 12) and Oscar De La Hoya (KO by 8) and his fistic erosion has been a long, slow process that has been difficult to watch at times.

 

It’s not often that a fighter can be ranked among the very best in two weight classes, but Chavez can say that of his reigns at 130lbs and especially at 140lbs.

 

The raw statistics for that career are astonishing. He fought in 37 world title fights winning 31, including an unbroken streak of 27 successful defenses across three weights, winning 21 by way of knockout. Even allowing for the fact that many of these 'world' titles were straps rather than true championships and that he sometimes failed to meet the best in his division, Chavez has earned the right to call himself great.

 

Although he lost his last outing against Grover Wiley due to a fractured hand Sept. 17, 2005 Chavez’s accomplishments still merit inclusion on this list.

 

He is the standard that all Mexican fighters, past and present, are measured....Phenominal fighter.