For his tenth professional fight and the last of the trial period given to him by his father, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was back in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the second time, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Despite the unimpressive physique of Jason Smith, however, he turned out to be a tough opponent. Smith hung in for the four scheduled rounds–Chavez’s last fight to go the distance before going on a thirteen-fight knockout streak.
In the first round of the fight, most of Smith’s punches landed only on the gloves or arms of Chavez, but the round was almost half over before Chavez landed his first flush right. Smith clinched a few times this round and was twice warned by the referee for rabbit punches in the clinch. Chavez finally got in a couple of good hooks to the body in the last minute of the round in addition to his head shots.
In the second round, Smith again was landing on Chavez’s arms and gloves, but managed to get in a few minor punches. Chavez was getting in some better punches, although he was also throwing a number of very wide punches that missed their mark. In the second half of the round, a few of his quick jabs knocked back the head of his opponent, and just before the bell he was able to follow up one of the jabs with a perfect right that hurt Smith. Unfortunately, the round was over before he could do any more damage.
In round three, Chavez started the round with his hard jab that had been so effective the last round, targeting Smith’s bloodied nose. The crowd woke up towards the middle of the round, when Chavez started landing more to the body as well, but he had some trouble with Smith clinching and couldn’t get in as many punches as he wanted.
In the final round, Chavez was a bit more aggressive, following his opponent around the ring and landing to the head and body. However, he wasn’t doing anything while in Smith’s clinches, which were more frequent now, or while Smith was pressing him against the ropes. In the final seconds of the fight, Chavez landed a strong series of punches, but Smith clinched and the bell rang. The fighters embraced, and Chavez went home with his tenth professional win.
In the main event, Erik Morales won an unanimous decision over Carlos “Famoso” Hernandez for the WBC and IBF super featherweight titles. Also on the card, Ivan Calderon retained his WBO minimumweight title with an unanimous decision over Roberto Carlos Leyva. Bantamweight Rafael Marquez knocked out Heriberto Ruiz in three. Lightweight Robbie Peden won an unanimous decision over Armando Cordoba. Lightweight Almazbek Raiymkulov TKO’ed Ricardo Fuentes in one.
notes
Referee: Jay Nady
Judge: Bill Graham 40-36
Judge: C.J. Ross 40-36
Judge: Adalaide Byrd 40-36