Jesús Gabriel Sandoval Chávez (; born November 12, 1972) is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 2010. He is a two-weight world champion, having held the World Boxing Council (WBC) super featherweight title from 2003 to 2004, and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) lightweight title from 2005 to 2007.

Early life Chávez was born in Delicias, Chihuahua, Mexico, and raised in Chicago, Illinois. 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. 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. 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 Austin Convention Center in his hometown Austin, Texas on August 15, 2003, but lost it on his first defense, to the then two-time champion Erik Morales. 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. 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 Colombia, 42 seconds into the 9th round of their lightweight bout, at the Toyota Center, in Houston, Texas. Chávez, of Austin, also floored Ledesma in the 7th round.

On April 4, 2009, Chávez was defeated by Michael Katsidis 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 US National Guard intelligence officer Aunisa Stroklund before she was deployed to the war in Iraq.

Professional boxing record

ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes52Loss44–8Jorge LinaresRTD4 (10), Oct 24, 201051Loss44–7Humberto SotoUD10Dec 19, 200950Loss44–6David Díaz10Sep 26, 200949Loss44–5Michael KatsidisRTD8 (10), Apr 4, 200948Win44–4Andrés LedesmaTKO9 (10), Sep 6, 200847Win43–4Daniel JiménezUD10Apr 4, 200846Loss42–4Julio DíazKO3 (12), Feb 3, 2007 45Win42–3Leavander JohnsonTKO11 (12), Sep 17, 200544Win41–3Carlos HernándezSD12May 28, 2005 43Loss40–3Érik MoralesUD12Feb 28, 2004 42Win40–2Sirimongkol SingwanchaUD12Aug 15, 200341Win39–2Carlos GerenaTKO6 (12), Mar 22, 200340Win38–2Johnny WalkerTKO6 (10), Nov 15, 200239Win37–2Julio Sánchez LeónTKO7 (10), Jun 28, 200238Win36–2Gerardo ZayasKO3 (10), Mar 22, 200237Loss35–2Floyd Mayweather Jr.RTD9 (12), Nov 10, 200136Win35–1 Juan José AriasUD12May 26, 2001 35Win34–1Tom JohnsonTKO8 (12), Feb 23, 2001 34Win33–1Benito RodríguezTKO6 (10), Jan 14, 200133Win32–1Miguel AndradeKO2Aug 4, 200032Win31–1 Russell MosleyTKO2Jun 23, 200031Win30–1Darryl PinckneyTKO4 (12)Mar 3, 2000 30Win29–1Adarryl JohnsonTKO5 (12), Nov 15, 1999 29Win28–1Armando BósquezTKO4 (12)Aug 27, 199928Win27–1Bruno RabanalesTKO4Jul 31, 199927Win26–1Julio ÁlvarezUD12May 22, 1999 26Win25–1Rudolfo LunsfordTKO4 (12)Oct 2, 1998 25Win24–1Eloy OrtegaTKO2Aug 15, 199824Win23–1Moisés RodríguezTKO3Apr 18, 199823Win22–1Troy DorseyRTD7 (12), Oct 4, 1997 22Win21–1Wilfredo NegrónTKO5 (12), Aug 19, 1997 21Win20–1John BrownUD12Jun 10, 1997 20Win19–1Louie Espinoza8 (12)May 5, 199719Win18–1Louie LeijaTKO6 (12), Mar 3, 1997 18Win17–1Miguel TepanacatlKO2 (10), Nov 8, 199617Win16–1Javier JáureguiUD12Aug 9, 199616Win15–1Felipe CastilloUD10May 17, 199615Win14–1Cedric MingoUD12Mar 31, 199614Win13–1Eldon SneedTKO2 (8), Feb 22, 199613Win12–1Roberto Ávila10Dec 6, 199512Win11–1Gilbert SalinasUD8Nov 2, 199511Win10–1Lupe RodríguezKO6 (10), Sep 21, 199510Win9–1Héctor VicencioTKO6 (10)Aug 25, 19959Win8–1Arturo Rangel2Jul 29, 19958Win7–1Manuel Mendez2 (6), Jul 13, 19957Win6–1Emanuel AugustusTKO7Jun 20, 19956Win5–1Tony DuranTKO3May 3, 19955Loss4–1Carlos Gerena8Jan 7, 19954Win4–0César Armando MartínezTKO4 (8)Oct 15, 19943Win3–0Jamie Cooper4Oct 13, 19942Win2–0Rudy HernandezUD4Aug 19, 19941Win1–0Lewis Wood4Aug 5, 1994

References

Further reading Jan Reid, The Bullet Meant for Me: A Memoir, Broadway, 2002,

External links