When Oscar De La Hoya came home from the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona with a gold medal, Julio Cesar Chavez was on top the boxing world in the lower weight classes. He had defeated all challengers, and a bout between the two men with Mexican descent became a natural, as Oscar’s career progressed. De La Hoya won multiple world titles as a pro, and by 1996 a bout between the two fighters was inevitable.
I was in Las Vegas in February of 1996, and attended the card featuring both boxers at Caesar’s Palace Sports Pavilion. After I lost too much money by picking the over on the over-under prop bet in the opening fight between Chavez and Scott ‘The Pink Cat’ Walker, I left disgusted, and never saw Oscar’s win over Darryl Tyson.
By the time their June 7th bout at the Outdoor Arena at Caesar’s Palace rolled around, I had started a part-time business. Having stored up thousands of sports and boxing magazines over the years in my closet, I decided to cut the pictures out of them, and make sports collages. They turned out great, and KJL Collages was born. The day after the big fight, I planned on making the 400 mile trek to Canastota, New York to sell my pictures at Induction Weekend at the Boxing Hall of Fame. So when my brother and I made the 8 mile or so drive to the Pavilion in Cherry Hill for the fight on closed-circuit, I had other stuff on my mind.
Only one minute into the opening round, Oscar opened a huge gash around Julio’s eye. It turned out that Chavez had been badly cut in training, but not wanting to miss out on a $9 million payday, fought anyway. Oscar boxed well enough to look impressive, but the blood all over Chavez’ face was all you could notice. Finally, in the fourth round, referee Joe Cortez was forced to call a halt to the action, awarding De La Hoya the TKO victory. It was an unsatisfying night at the fights, but when I made the drive home, I didn’t have time to think about.
On only 3 hours sleep, I left South Jersey at 1:15 am, and flew like crazy to Canastota, arriving in just 6 hours at 10;15. My collages were a hit, and I sold a bunch of them, but every time I think about that June 7th De La Hoya-Chavez fight, I remember my crazy, frantic drive to upstate New York State more!
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