Champ Denies Signing

WBC super lightweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez testified at boxing promoter Don King’s insurance fraud trial that he never signed a contract King allegedly used to get insurance money after a 1991 bout was canceled.

Chavez, the star witness in the trial, said he never signed a contract with his name on it that King allegedly submitted to Lloyd’s of London to recover $350,000 in supposedly non-refundable training expenses.

But he later added, “Sometimes I have signed blank contracts.”

The boxer, speaking through an interpreter, said he spent $50,000 to $60,000 training for the June 28, 1991 fight with Harold Brazier. The contest was canceled after Chavez injured his nose a few weeks before the contest.

King is accused of tricking Lloyd’s into paying $350,000 for training fees he had supposedly paid to Chavez by faking the front page of a contract with Chavez.