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Bobby Chacon, Boxing Champion Hounded by Misfortune, Dies at 64
Bobby Chacon, left, had a memorable rivalry with the super featherweight Rafael Limón, whom he defeated in 1982 in 15 rounds.THE RING MAGAZINE/GETTY IMAGES
By SAM ROBERTS
September 10, 2016
Bobby Chacon, a scrappy two-time world boxing champion who was haunted by tragedy outside the arena and memorialized in song by Warren Zevon, died on Wednesday at a hospice in Hemet, Calif. He was 64.
His death was confirmed by the Riverside County coroner and attributed to a fall while he was being treated for dementia, which had been linked to brain injuries from boxing.
Competing in lighter weight divisions, Chacon, who was 5 feet 5 ½ inches tall and 126 pounds in his prime, began boxing professionally in 1972 and retired in 1988 with 59 wins (including 47 knockouts), seven losses and one draw. He earned a berth in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005.
He is scheduled to be inducted this month into the West Coast Boxing Hall of Fame. Its president, Ricky Farris, described Chacon in an interview as “one of the most exciting fighters in the history of the West Coast, an amazing blood-and-guts brawler who took on the best fighters in three divisions.”
Chacon was nicknamed Schoolboy because of his youthful good looks and because he turned pro while studying at California State University, Northridge, in Los Angeles. He trained nearby and began by winning 19 straight bouts.
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Less than two years into his professional career, Chacon earned the World Boxing Council’s featherweight title in 1974, scoring a ninth-round technical knockout over Alfredo Marcano of Los Angeles.
He was then in his prime, Michael Katz later wrote in The New York Times, “magnificently innovative” and “able to invent punches in midair.”
Chacon’s most memorable rivalry was with Rafael Limón, the Mexican super featherweight known as Bazooka, whom he fought four times from 1975 to 1982. Chacon’s victory in a 15-round decision in Sacramento in 1982 was proclaimed Fight of the Year by The Ring magazine.
Debilitated by drugs and alcohol but still relentlessly cheerful, he lost his title to Rubén Olivares the following year.
By then his wife, Valorie, had pleaded with him to quit boxing, especially after he suffered bone-crushing losses to the super-featherweight champions Alexis Argüello in 1979 and Cornelius Boza-Edwards in 1981. But Chacon refused to stop fighting.
In 1982, his wife made a last phone call to him before fatally shooting herself at 31, leaving him with three children ages 11, 8 and 6.
“She was tired of being a boxer’s wife,” Chacon told The Times. “She just wanted to be my wife, not my trainer. She was always on me about it. But boxing was something I had to do, to get out of my blood.”
He fought the next night for a $6,000 purse, knocking out Salvador Ugalde in the third round. (In 1983, he avenged his loss to Boza-Edwards in another Ring magazine Fight of the Year.)
“I said I’d quit in my next loss or within a year, whichever came first,” Chacon said after the Ugalde fight, adding, “But not now.”
He went on: “I’ve got to keep on fighting, to go through with my career. Boxing I’m going to treat like another marriage.”
Chacon was born on Nov. 28, 1951, to Mexican immigrants in Sylmar in California’s San Fernando Valley. His father deserted the family not long after.
Remembered as a schoolyard brawler in a rugged neighborhood, Bobby graduated from San Fernando High School and tried to lift himself from poverty by attending a junior college in Northridge and working at a Lockheed factory. He eventually decided that boxing would be more lucrative.
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Married three times, he is survived by his mother, Gloria Banegas; his stepfather, John Banegas; a son, Jamie; his daughters, Donna and Alexis Chacon; and several siblings. (Another son, Bobby Jr., was shot and killed in a gang fight when he was 17.)
In 1984, Chacon was stripped of his title in a dispute with boxing officials and promoters over his next opponent. By then 32 years old, he moved up one weight class to challenge the lightweight champion Ray Mancini, known as Boom Boom.
The bout inspired the cult musician Warren Zevon, the son of a boxer, to write the 1987 song “Boom Boom Mancini,” with the lyrics “Hurry home early — hurry on home/Boom Boom Mancini’s fighting Bobby Chacon.”
Mancini, who was 25, battered his aging challenger until 1 minute and 17 seconds into the third round when the referee, Richard Steele, stopped the fight.
“Bobby had gotten enough,” Steele said. “I wanted it to end with this great champion standing and smiling.”
Chacon said afterward: “I’m still smiling. Thank you.”
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Bobby Chacon, Boxing Champion Hounded by Misfortune, Dies at 64
Bobby Chacon, left, had a memorable rivalry with the super featherweight Rafael Limón, whom he defeated in 1982 in 15 rounds.THE RING MAGAZINE/GETTY IMAGES
By SAM ROBERTS
September 10, 2016
Bobby Chacon, a scrappy two-time world boxing champion who was haunted by tragedy outside the arena and memorialized in song by Warren Zevon, died on Wednesday at a hospice in Hemet, Calif. He was 64.
His death was confirmed by the Riverside County coroner and attributed to a fall while he was being treated for dementia, which had been linked to brain injuries from boxing.
Competing in lighter weight divisions, Chacon, who was 5 feet 5 ½ inches tall and 126 pounds in his prime, began boxing professionally in 1972 and retired in 1988 with 59 wins (including 47 knockouts), seven losses and one draw. He earned a berth in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005.
He is scheduled to be inducted this month into the West Coast Boxing Hall of Fame. Its president, Ricky Farris, described Chacon in an interview as “one of the most exciting fighters in the history of the West Coast, an amazing blood-and-guts brawler who took on the best fighters in three divisions.”
Chacon was nicknamed Schoolboy because of his youthful good looks and because he turned pro while studying at California State University, Northridge, in Los Angeles. He trained nearby and began by winning 19 straight bouts.
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Less than two years into his professional career, Chacon earned the World Boxing Council’s featherweight title in 1974, scoring a ninth-round technical knockout over Alfredo Marcano of Los Angeles.
He was then in his prime, Michael Katz later wrote in The New York Times, “magnificently innovative” and “able to invent punches in midair.”
Chacon’s most memorable rivalry was with Rafael Limón, the Mexican super featherweight known as Bazooka, whom he fought four times from 1975 to 1982. Chacon’s victory in a 15-round decision in Sacramento in 1982 was proclaimed Fight of the Year by The Ring magazine.
Debilitated by drugs and alcohol but still relentlessly cheerful, he lost his title to Rubén Olivares the following year.
By then his wife, Valorie, had pleaded with him to quit boxing, especially after he suffered bone-crushing losses to the super-featherweight champions Alexis Argüello in 1979 and Cornelius Boza-Edwards in 1981. But Chacon refused to stop fighting.
In 1982, his wife made a last phone call to him before fatally shooting herself at 31, leaving him with three children ages 11, 8 and 6.
“She was tired of being a boxer’s wife,” Chacon told The Times. “She just wanted to be my wife, not my trainer. She was always on me about it. But boxing was something I had to do, to get out of my blood.”
He fought the next night for a $6,000 purse, knocking out Salvador Ugalde in the third round. (In 1983, he avenged his loss to Boza-Edwards in another Ring magazine Fight of the Year.)
“I said I’d quit in my next loss or within a year, whichever came first,” Chacon said after the Ugalde fight, adding, “But not now.”
He went on: “I’ve got to keep on fighting, to go through with my career. Boxing I’m going to treat like another marriage.”
Chacon was born on Nov. 28, 1951, to Mexican immigrants in Sylmar in California’s San Fernando Valley. His father deserted the family not long after.
Remembered as a schoolyard brawler in a rugged neighborhood, Bobby graduated from San Fernando High School and tried to lift himself from poverty by attending a junior college in Northridge and working at a Lockheed factory. He eventually decided that boxing would be more lucrative.
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Married three times, he is survived by his mother, Gloria Banegas; his stepfather, John Banegas; a son, Jamie; his daughters, Donna and Alexis Chacon; and several siblings. (Another son, Bobby Jr., was shot and killed in a gang fight when he was 17.)
In 1984, Chacon was stripped of his title in a dispute with boxing officials and promoters over his next opponent. By then 32 years old, he moved up one weight class to challenge the lightweight champion Ray Mancini, known as Boom Boom.
The bout inspired the cult musician Warren Zevon, the son of a boxer, to write the 1987 song “Boom Boom Mancini,” with the lyrics “Hurry home early — hurry on home/Boom Boom Mancini’s fighting Bobby Chacon.”
Mancini, who was 25, battered his aging challenger until 1 minute and 17 seconds into the third round when the referee, Richard Steele, stopped the fight.
“Bobby had gotten enough,” Steele said. “I wanted it to end with this great champion standing and smiling.”
Chacon said afterward: “I’m still smiling. Thank you.”
HelpSubscribeFeedbackTerms of ServicePrivacy
© 2016 The New York Times Company
