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By John Katsilometes
Review-Journal
At 34, Julio Cesar Chavez still has an appetite for destruction.
Apparently, his appetite doesn't stop there.
Carrying a career-high 151 pounds on an uncharacteristically portly frame, Chavez outslugged 36-year-old Tony Martin in a junior welterweight non-title bout at the Las Vegas Hilton on Saturday night.
Chavez won, with scores of 97-92 on two judges' cards and 98-91 on the third, by unanimous decision in the 10-round fight. He bloodied Martin's nose in the first round and pounded Martin's face into a lumpy mess by the 10th, but Martin continually snapped Chavez's head with right hands and was a game opponent.
Martin damaged his upset hopes with a series of low blows that resulted in a point deduction in the fifth round. He also caught Chavez with a head butt in the sixth.
Chavez said he was slowed by the extra baggage.
"First of all, I was not at my natural weight," Chavez said. "I was much heavier. ... (but) that's no excuse. My next fight, I'll be at 145."
Chavez's last fight was Oct. 12, 1996, when he beat Joey Gamache in an eighth-round technical knockout.
"You have to remember, I've gone six months without fighting," Chavez said. "I didn't train as hard as I should have."
Promoter Don King said he expects Chavez to fight in June at New York City's Madison Square Garden. King did not name an opponent.
Chavez, of Culiacan, Mexico, improved to 99-2-1 with 83 knockouts. Martin slipped to 35-5-1 with 12 knockouts.
In other undercard bouts:
--Ricardo Lopez took a unanimous decision over Mongol Charoen in the World Boxing Council strawweight championship.
Lopez bloodied Charoen's nose in the opening moments and slammed the left-handed native of Konkaen, Thailand, with both hands throughout. But it wasn't until the final two rounds, when Lopez began pounding rights into Charoen's body, that Charoen appeared to tire.
Lopez, who won the title Oct. 25, 1990, moved to 45-0 with 34 knockouts. Charoen, ranked No. 5 by the WBC, slipped to 17-1 with five knockouts.
--Alex Sanchez retained the World Boxing Organization mini-flyweight title with a unanimous decision over Victor Burgos. Sanchez knocked down Burgos with an 11th-round left hook.
Sanchez, of Ponce, Puerto Rico, improved to 25-1 with 18 knockouts. Burgos, of Tijuana, Mexico, dipped to 16-8-1 with five knockouts.
--Laurent Boudouani defended his World Boxing Association junior middleweight championship with a unanimous decision over Carl Daniels.
Boudouani, who recorded an eighth-round flash knockdown, benefitted when Daniels was docked a point in the 12th for repeatedly losing his mouthpiece.
Boudouani, of Sallanchez, France, improved to 34-2 with 31 knockouts. Daniels, of St. Louis, dropped to 38-3 with 25 knockouts.
-- Jerry Ballard of Washington, D.C., defeated Milwaukee's Lyle McDowell by technical knockout at 1:56 of the seventh round of a heavyweight bout. Ballard moved to 18-1 with 18 knockouts, and McDowell fell to 18-5-1 with 10 KOs.
--Mexico City's Nieves Garcia won women's International Boxing Federation super-lightweight championship with a split decision over Belgium's Daniella Somers. Garcia is 2-1 without a knockout; Somers dropped to 5-1 with two knockouts.
--Chicago's Nate Jones took a unanimous decision over San Diego's Ricardo Phillips in a heavyweight bout. Jones moved to 2-0 with one knockout, and Phillips slipped to 2-4 with one knockout.
-- Julio Cesar Green of Brooklyn, N.Y., knocked out Bernice Barber of Virginia Beach, Fla., in a middleweight fight. Green is 25-2 with 18 knockouts and Barger 14-6-2 with eight KOs.
-- Juan Negron of Newark, N.Y., won on a third-round disqualification of Enrique Sanchez of Tijuana, Mexico, in a welterweight bout. Negron is 25-2 with 17 KOs and Sanchez 10-7-1 with seven knockouts.
-- Mexico City's Laura Serrano registered a third-round technical knockout of Cheryl Nance of Columbia, South Carolina, in a women's super-lightweight fight. Serrao is 3-0-1 with one knockout, and Nance is 2-1 with two KOs.
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