They known as him “The Schoolboy,” as a result of he had as soon as attended college, a uncommon factor amongst skilled prizefighters. However make no mistake, regardless of the nickname and the ever-present boyish smile, Bobby Chacon was as robust and as recreation as they arrive. And this was lucky as a result of it could require unusual toughness and a real ardour for battle and fight to endure the ache of Bobby Chacon’s life.
Bobby’s love for one lady, his highschool sweetheart Valorie Ginn, and her love for him, outlined that life. They met in 1968, when Chacon was nonetheless a junior at San Fernando Excessive. “I used to be having a celebration, and I requested her if she wished to go,” recalled Chacon years later. “We have been by no means actually aside after that.”
Bobby had a status for being an distinctive avenue fighter and Valorie inspired him to strive boxing. They’d watch the fights on TV and it was Valorie who stated, “You are able to do that.” She even paid for his first boxing license. By 1971 they have been married and the following yr Chacon turned professional.
The profession of Bobby Chacon was a curler coaster, wonderful highs adopted by agonizing lows. He tore up the featherweight ranks, knocking off one contender after one other and shortly turned a sensation within the Southern California boxing scene. Then they matched him up with Ruben Olivares and “El Púas” and his lethal left hook taught “The Schoolboy” a harsh lesson, Chacon’s nook stopping the combat after 9 violent rounds. However the next yr Bobby received his first world title, which he efficiently defended as soon as earlier than shedding, once more to Olivares. And so it went. Chacon would put collectively a string of wins solely to lose to Olivares. Or Alexis Arguello. Or his arch-nemesis, Mexico’s Rafael “Bazooka” Limon.
However even the wins could possibly be painful. In 1976, Chacon earned a ten spherical choice over a Mexican club-fighter with 14 losses on his report named David Sotelo. Floored twice and practically knocked out, Chacon was lucky to exit the winner. In his dressing room afterwards, because the physician labored to sew up Bobby’s face, his high-school sweetheart and the mom of his kids begged him by way of tears to retire.
Valorie had helped get Chacon into boxing however now she couldn’t get him out, and the guilt and the worry have been taking their toll. By this time that they had three kids and he or she wished the household to maneuver to Hawaii for a contemporary begin. However Bobby had been a champion for a short time, had had a style of what it was wish to get to the highest of that mountain. He wanted to style it once more.
In March of 1980, Chacon and the southpaw Limon locked up for a 3rd time and, like their first two clashes, this was one other vicious brawl. Stressed and nervous and eager to keep away from even fascinated by the combat, Valorie determined to spend the night with mates in a neighborhood bar however she hadn’t counted on the late-night TV newscast. “First the loser,” boomed the tv and “Bazooka” Limon’s comparatively unmarked face appeared. “And now, consider it or not, the winner!” And there was Bobby with cuts above each eyes and darkish welts underneath.
“I can’t take it anymore,” she advised him that night time. “Please, it’s a must to cease.”
However Bobby didn’t. And now neither did the arguments, the fixed bickering and pleading, the guarantees and the bargaining. Chacon would say all the fitting issues to placate Valorie, however then he’d be gone and in coaching for one more match. He was in his mid-20s and for him, the die was solid: he was a fighter. He bought one other title shot, misplaced one other robust battle, however felt extra sure than ever he might do it, that if he simply stored working and combating, he would make it to the highest once more.
However by February of 1982 Valorie had reached the breaking level. The household lived in Palermo now and Bobby was in Sacramento for his subsequent bout when Valorie advised the children she was taking a nap. Within the bed room she swallowed a handful of sleeping capsules however they discovered her in time and bought her to the hospital. Bobby received that night time and Valorie quickly recovered, however then she disappeared for a month. The stress and worry have been an excessive amount of; she was cracking up. They discovered her wandering across the airport in Sacramento speaking to strangers about weapons.
Just some days later Chacon left dwelling for his subsequent bout, one other shot at a championship on the horizon if he stored profitable. He and Valorie argued on the cellphone after which the following day got here the decision, not from Valorie, however from her mom. Valorie was gone. After kissing the framed photos of her sleeping kids, she went into her bed room with the .22 rifle they stored in the home for cover, put the barrel to her head and pulled the set off. That night time Chacon drove again to Palermo to assist his household make funeral preparations. However twenty-four hours later he was in Sacramento, scoring a 3rd spherical TKO over a journeyman named Salvador Ugalde. Instantly after, he devoted the win to Valorie.
That is the tragic backdrop for one of many biggest fights in boxing historical past.
Chacon and Rafael Limon didn’t like one another. Limon, a local of Mexico Metropolis, noticed Bobby as a typical “fairly boy,” a pampered California boxer, missing in manhood, whereas “The Schoolboy” regarded “Bazooka” an an conceited prick. Their first three fights had been tough and nasty and the fourth promised to be no totally different, besides in a single regard: this time it was for the a super-featherweight world title belt which Limon had received earlier that yr. The bout was held in Sacramento, broadcast dwell on nationwide tv, with Chacon followers packing the auditorium, everybody hoping Bobby would possibly redeem the years of ache and sacrifice by lastly profitable a second world championship.
Earlier than the combat, in his dressing, Chacon, paced restlessly, his ideas by no means removed from Valorie, as he stored repeating out loud to himself: “I can’t lose. I can’t lose.”
From the opening bell, the 2 warriors fought with startling ferocity and little regard for self-protection. Limon was the aggressor, touchdown broad, looping photographs and forcing Chacon to offer floor. He took the primary spherical and halfway by way of spherical two he had Bobby within the nook, working him over with each arms, earlier than Chacon abruptly charged ahead and fought his approach out, touchdown a sequence of laborious rights as the gang erupted. Sure, it was going to be one other warfare.
A left hand put Chacon down in spherical three and the 2 warriors took turns punishing one another by way of the center rounds, each battling with unusual depth. Increasingly more it turned a contest between the fighters’ energy arms, Chacon’s lead proper vs the southpaw Limon’s overhand left. Bobby got here on robust in rounds eight and 9, however an enormous counter left put the challenger down once more in spherical ten.
The tempo by no means slackened; each spherical was lethal shut, and in nearly each spherical each males have been rocked. Chacon bled from a minimize on the bridge of his nostril however appeared to win extra rounds, although the 2 knockdowns couldn’t be discounted. As if to emphasise the closeness of the battle, within the thirteenth they managed to stagger one another throughout the identical alternate, Limon touchdown the massive left, Chacon the fitting.
By the fourteenth, Limon’s legs have been gone and he clung to Chacon like a drowning man in tough water, whereas Bobby, determined and pushed, surged ahead, combating as if his very life was on the road. And within the last spherical, with the gang on its ft and chanting Bobby! Bobby! Bobby!, he lastly discovered what he had been trying to find. With fewer than fifteen seconds left, he caught Limon coming in with a tough proper and adopted up with two extra, the blows sending “Bazooka” crashing to the canvas as Chacon leapt on the ropes and set free a wild bellow of triumph. Seconds later the ultimate bell rang. It was like one thing out of a film.
The group was silent because the judges’ choice was introduced after which erupted as Bobby Chacon was declared the victor, a world champion once more, winner of an amazingly dramatic and action-packed warfare by shut choice. If he had not floored Limon within the last seconds, the consequence would have been a draw. At ringside, veteran combat scribe Jack Fiske, who had lined the game for greater than 4 many years, known as it probably the best combat he had ever seen.
Afterwards, an emotional Bobby devoted the win to Valorie.
“I lastly broke down after the Limon combat,” Chacon recounted later. “I didn’t like that man to start with and with the whole lot that occurred… I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat. I simply stored fascinated by Valorie. I cried for days … She got here to me in my goals. I might cry after which once I might lastly sleep she got here to me, as stunning as all the time. Perhaps to say goodbye.” — Michael Carbert
