Jesús Gabriel Sandoval Chávez (; born November 12, 1972) is a Mexican former

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

who competed from 1994 to 2010. He is a two-weight world champion, having held the WBC

super featherweight Super featherweight, also known as junior lightweight, is a weight division in professional boxing, contested between and . The super featherweight division was established by the New York Walker Law in 1920, although first founded by the New ...

title from 2003 to 2004, and the IBF

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing (sport), rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) boxing weight classes, weight class in the spor ...

title from 2005 to 2007.

Early life

Chávez was born in Delicias, Chihuahua, Mexico, and raised in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. 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 Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Nevertheless, he struggled to regain American citizenship and work his way up in boxing ranks.

Professional career

Chávez's first title opportunity came against WBC Super Featherweight champion

Floyd Mayweather Jr. Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. (né Sinclair; born February 24, 1977) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed between 1996 and 2017. He list of undefeated boxing world champions, retired with an undefeated record a ...

where he retired in the 9th round after an entertaining bout. He rebounded to win Mayweather's vacated WBC title on a fight for the title against 43-1 world champion Sirimongkol Eaimthuam by a twelve round unanimous decision at the

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in his hometown

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on August 15, 2003, but lost it on his first defense, to the then two-time champion

Erik Morales Erik Isaac Morales Elvira (born September 1, 1976) is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2012. He is the first Mexico-born boxer in history to quadruple champion, win world championships in four weight classes, rangin ...

. 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. 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.

IBF lightweight champion and death of Leavander Johnson

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 after he went into a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...

. Despite being implicated in the tragedy, Johnson's family encouraged Chávez to keep fighting. In 2007, Chávez lost his IBF title to Julio Díaz. On September 6, 2008, Jesús "El Matador" Chávez, (44-4 with 31 Win by TKO) knocked out visiting Andres Ledesma, of

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, 42 seconds into the 9th round of their lightweight bout, at the

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, in

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. Chávez, of

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, also floored Ledesma in the 7th round. On April 4, 2009, Chávez was defeated by

Michael Katsidis Michael Alan Katsidis ( ; ; born 15 August 1980) is an Australian former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2017. He held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) interim championship, interim lightweight title twice between 2007 and 2010 ...

via 8th round TKO. He is trained by Richard Lord. Chávez is the subject of the 2006 non-fiction book by Adam Pitluk titled '' Standing Eight''.

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''". His life story was also documented in the book "''Standing Eight: The Inspiring Story of Jesus El Matador Chavez''". In 2004, Chávez married

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. As of 2017 Chávez and Stroklund are divorced and Chávez now resides in Dallas, Texas.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chavez, Jesus 1972 births International Boxing Federation champions Super-featherweight boxers Lightweight boxers Living people Mexican male boxers Boxers from Chihuahua (state) World Boxing Council champions People deported from the United States Featherweight boxers World super-featherweight boxing champions World lightweight boxing champions People from Delicias, Chihuahua