Oscar De La Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez

The two boxers had two fights together, one in 1997 and one in 1999. De La Hoya won the first by cuts stoppage in the fourth and the re-match was won more emphatically.
Now it seems to me that Chavez's place in the all time great listings has slipped quite a lot in the last decade.Maybe the "Legendary Nights" documentary of his Meldrick Taylor fight has illuminated glaring shortcomings:Taylor boxed his ears off before the controversial stoppage. But nevetheless it does say something about Chavez's spirit endurance and power that he was able to put together such a furious assault in the last round.
Chavez's record reads 116 bouts,108 wins,6 losses,2 draws,87 knockouts. It is the knockout statistic that most impresses me;it indicates that he was a hellish puncher.Yet he could be out-thought and I'm sure that many of you Whitaker fans will feel aggrieved at the "draw" result,as most ringside observers scored it 8-4 in his favour.That's the WBC for you.He eventually lost for the first time to Frankie Randall, and memorably, when Don King entered the ring he had to let Chavez down by saying ,"Not this time, Julio". Chavez was certainly a protected fighter to some extent.An earlier disqualification result was converted into a first round kayo(against Miguel Ruiz in 1981).
Oscar De La Hoya we are perhaps more familiar with, the superfights go like this:

W against Whitaker (another hotly disputed result)
L against Trinidad (but a great showing by De La Hoya)
L against Moseley 1
W against Gatti
W against Vargas (perhaps his best performance?)
L against Moseley 11
W against Sturm at middleweight( a poor performance which De La Hoya admited was not enough to win the fight)
L against Hopkins
W against Mayorga
L against Mayweather (some have him winning this)
L against Pacquiao (the less said the better)

My feeling is that Julio Cesar Chavez and Oscar De La Hoya were both fighters who nearly attained greatness but just about fell short.Both were highly marketable and gutsy warriors.However I can't help putting a bit of an asterisk against the blown up record of Chavez and the seemingly great achievement of ten world titles at six weights for Oscar.

Now, to get back down to it, who do you you favour, if they fought at their peak? There's no doubt that they fought when Chavez was very much on the slide.Perhaps that's why the Mexican fans never really took to De La Hoya. It's as close to a 50-50 as you can get ,in my opinion, however I personally lean towards De La Hoya who I think would have produced a matador display against a typically determined Chavez, over points.
Thoughts, please!

Great article, Andy, although I think it does Chavez a little bit of a disservice to compare him so directly to De la Hoya. Both perhaps a little overblown by their fanatical following at times, and maybe the beneficiaries of some shady carry on now and then, but Chavez is still a true, elite all-time great epitomised in my opinion. De la Hoya, superb fighter though he was, isn't at that level.

I think Oscar's frame and style was always going to carry him further up the weights than JC Superstar's would; much easier for technicians who can use the ring to carry their talents up through the divisions than it is for an inside bully like Chavez, who needed to impose that beastly physicality of his. Would say, however, that Chavez was, at some time or another, generally considered the best by a handy margin in each of the divisions he reigned in and took the trouble to bolster those claims via unifications and / or a long, long line of defences each time. His thrashing of Rosario was one of the most dominant displays I've seen.

It's an interesting question of the possibility of a head to head had they both been at their best, though. It's worth noting that even La Porte gave Chavez all sorts of problems at 130 lb, and De la Hoya was huge at Super-Feather, Light and Light-Welter. Wouldn't be easy for Chavez to ragdoll him around the way he did to so many others.

That said, Oscar wasn't a great fighter going backwards, so if Chavez does have some success inside early on, he may just be able to nick rounds on workrate and decision Oscar. That's probably the majority call, I'd say, but I'd expect a close-ish fight either way.

I was lucky enough to visit my friend who lives in Veracruz, Mexico about two years back and was amazed speaking to his Mexican father-in-law in what high regard JCC is still held.

Mexicans also seem to look slightly down on stars like De La Hoya as not being a real Mexican.

It would be a close fight that Chris summed up far better than I ever could.

Just feel that JCC would get those murderous body shots through at some point and win a close points decision.

What weight are we talking about here? They both compete from 130 to 147

JCC wins at 130,135 and 140 easily imo. He is the greatest Mexican fighter off all time perhaps, Oscar had the fame but lost a lot of big fights, and this would be a huge fight.

Oscar was quite gangly below welterweight, and Chavez in his prime could cut off the ring as good as anyone in the history of the sport and would rip left hooks in.

Chavez lost to movers, counterpunchers who showed him up as brig rather dried. Oscar is not that, he does his best when he holds the centre of the ring pushing his opponents back. Can't see Oscar being stopped unless its a 15 rounder as Chavez would wear him down.

Oscar was a prime welterweight, Chavez a prime lightweight,how can you base a fight prime vs prime when they were best at different weights?

Oscar wins at welter, Chavez wins at lightweight and LWW

Only fair to imagine the fight at light welterweight-granted they peaked at different weights but this is the weight they fought each other at.
It's true that the Mexican fight fans didn't really take to De La Hoya.He wasn't quite in their mould -however Chavez wore his love of his country on his sleeve and when he beat Edwin Rosario he wept in the ring-Rosario had cast aspersions on senors and senoritas as "fags" and "wh ores",which is why,Chris,Chavez gave him the mother of all beatings.
I don't put them on equal footing as boxers,by the way; I do think Chavez had the better career...thanks for the posts.