Chavez Reaches Century Mark In Front Of Disinterested Crowd

Julio Cesar Chavez won for the 100th time Saturday, and hardly anyone seemed to care.

The sold-out crowd waiting to watch Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson gave Chavez only some polite applause after he chased Larry La Coursiere around the ring to win a unanimous 10-round decision and run his record to 100-2-1.

The Mexican great was fighting over the weight again at 148 pounds against the light-hitting La Coursiere, who spent the fight circling from the outside and throwing few punches.

Chavez managed to drop La Coursiere, 22-7-1, 20 seconds into the fourth round with a right hand. But La Coursiere, of Hastings, Minn., was up at the count of six and survived the round.

An accidental head butt in the sixth round bloodied La Coursiere’s nose but it was not a factor in the fight, which drew boos from the crowd of 16,331.

Bloodied Martin wins return

In her first fight since appearing on the Nov. 9 Holyfield-Tyson undercard, Christy Martin stopped Andrea DeShong at 1:43 of the seventh round at the MGM Grand Garden.

Martin was bleeding from the nose from the second round on, and her pink trunks and shirt were covered in blood by the time the bout ended.

“It’s just boxing, you’re going to bleed,” Martin said. “I wasn’t going to let it stop me.”

Martin had too much for the game DeShong, who never went down but took a beating throughout each two-minute round. Martin finally ended the fight by landing five straight jabs, prompting referee Kenny Bayless to take an obviously exhausted DeShong to the corner, where the ring doctor told him to stop the fight.

“Early in the fight, I hurt my right hand so I wasn’t able to throw it, Martin said. “In the first round, I think she broke my nose with her head.”

Martin, 137-1/2, of Orlando, Fla., earned $150,000 for the fight, upping her record to 32-1-2. DeShong, 138, of Mingo Junction, Ohio, fell to 13-5-1.

Gonzalez prevails in third

Miguel Angel Gonzalez also won on the Tyson-Holyfield undercard by stopping Roberto Granciosa at the end of the third round.

Gonzalez, who lost his 140-pound title to Oscar De La Hoya in January, had no trouble with Granciosa, a lefty from Honolulu with a listed record of 31-17-3.

Gonzalez worked the body from the opening bell, and the blows took their toll on Granciosa.

Bradley pummels Williams

In another fight at Las Vegas, unbeaten WBO middleweight champion Lonnie Bradley retained his title by stopping John Williams of Bradenton, Fla., 45 seconds into the eighth round.

Bradley, who improved to 26-0-1, landed at will against Williams and was giving him a beating when referee Joe Cortez finally stepped in to stop the fight.

Hide whips Tucker in two rounds

At Norwich, England, Herbie Hide knocked Tony Tucker down three times late in Round 2 to win the vacant WBO heavyweight title.

The 38-year-old Tucker couldn’t handle the speed of the far lighter British fighter. Tucker was on the mat for a minute after the third knockdown, at 2:45 of the second round.

Hide held the title in 1994 before being knocked down seven times by Riddick Bowe.