In tune-up for his title fight the following month with Angel Hernandez, Chavez dropped Soberanes (39-7-1, 30 KOs) with a left hook just before the bell to end the third round and then again in the opening seconds of the fourth. Soberanes did not get up to beat the referee’s count, and Chavez got the knockout victory.

UNDERCARD – Luis Vazquez knocked out Timoteo Zavaleta in one.

THE OPPONENT – Juan Soberanes, also of Culiacán, began his pro boxing career in 1984. After winning thirty fights (none against notable opponents) and still undefeated, he won a decision over Juan Guardado to win the Mexican lightweight title. Soberanes lost that title to Herminio Delgado just a few month later, picking up his first career loss with an eleventh-round TKO. In 1989, he regained the title with a first round TKO of Jorge Gomez, but his career went mostly downhill from there. Soberanes’ next fight was against Terrence Alli, by whom he was knocked out in the seventh. Between then and the Chavez fight, he had a knockout win over Antonio De la Paz but also had five losses, including to Lonnie Smith, Mario Martinez, Jaime “Rocky” Balboa and Miguel Angel Gonzalez. After the Chavez fight, Soberanes continued as a “jobber to the stars” accumulating twenty-two more losses (some to notable opponents such as Gonzalez again, Frankie Randall and Oba Carr), just five wins (including a decision over Roger Mayweather) and one draw (with Rodolfo Aguilar). He retired in 2001 after thirteen straight losses, but had one more fight recently (March 2005), in which he lost again by a fifth-round TKO.

Location: La Paz, Baja California Sur
Scheduled: 10 Rounds
Referee: Profesor Raúl Hirales