Undefeated World Middleweight Champion and the Son of the Legend, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and Top-Five pound-for pound fighter and three-division world champion Nonito Donaire “The Filipino Flash” will headline a world title doubleheader, Saturday, February 4, at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Chávez Jr. will be taking on No. 1 contender Marco Antonio Rubio. Donaire will rumble with former junior featherweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. for the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior featherweight title. The fights will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing®, beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT.
Promoted by Top Rank, in association with Zanfer Promotions and Tecate, tickets to the Chávez Jr. / Donaire world championship doubleheader go on sale This Saturday! December 31 at 10 a.m. CT. Tickets, priced at $200, $100, $60, $40 and $25, can be purchased at the Alamodome box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.com and via Ticketmaster charge-by-phone lines at (800) 745-3000.
Combined, these four warriors boast a combined record of 145-7-3 (114 KOs) – a winning percentage of 94% and a victory by knockout ratio of 79%.
“In 2011, Julio Cesar Chávez Jr came into his own, winning the world middleweight title from Sebastian Zbik followed by a win in a title defense against Peter Manfredo Jr,” said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum. “The New Year promises to be even bigger for Julio, but first he is in a difficult challenge against No. 1-ranked challenger Marco Antonio Rubio. This should be a real battle. Also on Feb 4, Nonito Donaire continues his march through the weight divisions when he takes on Wilfredo Vazquez Jr for the vacant WBO Junior Featherweight Championship.”
Chávez Jr. (44-0-1, 31 KOs), of Culiacan, México, making his first appearance in San Antonio since 2010, is the son of Mexico’s greatest fighter Julio César Chávez. Chávez, 25, took up the “family business” in 2003, winning a four-round decision in his professional debut. Eight years later, the reigning World Middleweight Champion and superior gate attraction is poised to make his own mark in the boxing world. He took a major step toward that goal by enlisting legendary trainer Freddie Roach to take him to the next level.
Their first fight together was a gigantic success, a dominant 12-round unanimous decision victory over top-10 contender John Duddy (29-1, 18 KOs) in June 2010 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. After his January 29 unanimous decision win over Billy Lyell, Chávez Jr. became the second family member to win a world title, dethroning undefeated World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight champion Sebastian Zbik via a majority decision. That June 4 slugfest took place at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles just a few blocks north of the Olympic Auditorium where the legendary Julio César Chávez won his first world title. Chávez Jr. successfully defended his title on November 19 with a fifth-round knockout of Top-Five contender Peter Manfredo at Reliant Arena in Houston.
Rubio (53-5-1, 47 KOs), of Torreon, México, enters this fight riding a two-year, 10-bout winning streak with nine of those victories coming by way of knockout. This will be Rubio’s second crack at the middleweight crown. He went nine exciting rounds in his unsuccessful challenge against unified world champion Kelly Pavlik in 2009. Since then, he has scored knockout victories of Rigoberto Alvarez and David Lemieux in WBC middleweight title elimination bouts as well as Jose Zertuche and Matt Vanda in WBC Latin America title fights en route to his No. 1 world rating.
Donaire (27-1, 18 KOs), a native of General Santos City, Philippines, now living in the Bay Area of San Leandro, Calif., is a consensus top-five pound for pound fighter. He enters this fight riding a nine-year, 26-bout winning streak, which includes an IBF/IBO flyweight title knockout victory of defending champion Vic Darchinyan, and a fourth-round blasting of former WBA bantamweight champion Wladimir Sidorenko, December 4, 2010.
However, Donaire’s most impressive victory occurred on February 19, when he knocked out defending WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel in the second round, ending Montiel’s 25-bout winning streak while also claiming his third world title in as many weight divisions. That victory has been named the 2011 Knockout of the Year. Ten of Donaire’s last 12 victories have come by way of knockout. In his last fight, Donaire successfully defended his World Bantamweight Championship blitzing undefeated Omar Narvaez and winning virtually every round en route to a unanimous decision win.
Vazquez (21-1-1, 18 KOs), of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, strung together a four-year, 21-bout unbeaten streak, beginning with his pro debut, culminating with Vazquez winning the WBO junior featherweight championship. Vazquez captured the world title in 2010, knocking out Marvin Sonsona in the fourth round. He successfully defended the title twice during the following eight months, scoring knockouts of Zsolt Bedak and Ivan Hernandez in the 10th and 11th rounds, respectively. After losing the title to Jorge Arce in May, he bounced back in October with a third-round knockout of Roberto Leyva.
