Chávez held an overall record of 44–0–1, having won twenty straight fights since enduring his career's lone blemish six years ago. The bout with Rubio was the rising star's second consecutive clash in Texas, racking up a fifth-round TKO against Peter Manfredo Jr. in Houston last month, and the second time he's visited the home of The Alamo in his previous five fights.[3]
Rubio had gone 10–0 with nine knockouts and has been a far more authoritative, confident-appearing fighter.
Among those 10 victories was an impressive seventh-round stoppage of one of the game's elite prospects, David Lemieux, on April 8, 2011. Lemieux entered the fight with a 25–0 record and 24 knockouts and was hailed as a potential star.
He has not lost since being stopped in the ninth round by then-middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in February 2009.
Super Flyweight Bout Adam Lopez vs. Richard Hernandez
Lopez defeated Hernandez via TKO at 2:1 of Round 1.
Featherweight Bout Jeremy Longoria vs. Ricardo Valencia
Valencia defeated Longoria via unanimous decision. (36–39, 36–39, 37–38)
Result
Chávez retained the WBC middleweight title, earning a unanimous decision over fellow Mexican Rubio. The judges scored the bout 118–110, 116-112 115-113 for Chávez, which drew a mixed reaction from the 14,120 in attendance at the Alamodome. Neither fighter went down despite taking continuous heavy blows to the head and body throughout the 12-round bout. Chavez Jr. overcame a gutsy performance by Rubio despite having some trouble entering the fight.
Notes
Rubio stated after the fight: "He re-gained a lot of weight. I re-gained my usual weight." and "I feel that he was very well protected. They didn't even do any testing which should have been done". However, Rubio neglected to mention that the local Texas commission also did not test him, along with the co-feature fighters Donaire and Vazquez Jr. According to the commission, they made the mistake of not booking a testing laboratory for the event in advance.[5] Former world champion Julio César Chávez was at ringside, providing Spanish color commentary for Donaire's bout before watching his son's fight as a spectator. Among those in attendance were former world champions "Sugar" Shane Mosley of Golden Boy Promotions and San Antonio native Jesse James Leija.
