Mike Lee vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is the big money fight Chicago needs

A light heavyweight bout between Mike Lee vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is rumored to be in the works. Here’s why this fight can renew boxing interest in Chicago.

During the early to mid 20th century, professional boxing flourished in Chicago. Las Vegas was still in its infancy, and New York was the fight capital of the world. However, the Chicago Stadium and Comiskey Park held their own in boxing alongside Madison Square Garden. Today, boxing’s popularity in the U.S. is greatly diminished, and Chicago’s role in professional boxing is at a low, but a rumored bout between Mike Lee (21-0, 11 KOs) and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-3-1, 32 KOs) could help restore Chicago to its boxing roots.

The most colossal fight in Chicago’s history was the 1927 rematch between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney. Dempsey was the greatest sporting icon of the 1920s in the United States. Boxing’s popularity was at a premium. The only other professional sport was baseball. The NFL and the NBA weren’t in existence, which benefitted boxing greatly.

Television hadn’t been invented, so sporting audiences either had to watch fights live or listen to them on the radio. Dempsey’s bout in 1921 against Georges Carpentier was the first fight broadcast live in the U.S. Dempsey’s accomplishments in the ring provided entertainment for all American households. He became the biggest part of the American sporting culture.

Tunney shockingly defeated Dempsey in 1926. Their rematch a year later in Chicago’s Soldier Field enticed the American imagination. The U.S. hoped that their sporting hero could regain the title. The rematch turned into one of the most controversial bouts in history.

Dempsey’s age, 31, caught up with him, and the slightly younger Tunney thoroughly outboxed him. There was one moment in the fight where a flash of Dempsey’s youth appeared. In Round 7, Dempsey finally caught Tunney and beat him to the ground. Dempsey failed to return to a neutral corner as new rules stipulated, which gave Tunney more than 10 seconds to recover from the knockdown. We now know this as “the long count.”

Tunney got to his feet and knocked Dempsey down in the eighth, but the “long count” fight solidified Chicago’s place in boxing history. Dempsey vs. Tunney kickstarted Chicago’s fascination with boxing.

Other memorable boxing matches in Chicago’s history include Joe Louis’s knockout of James J. Braddock in 1937 to win the heavyweight title and the sixth bout between Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta, known as the St. Valentines Day Massacre.

The advent of the NBA, NHL and NBA have hurt boxing’s popularity in the U.S. Boxing was nearly banned on several occasions. The live televised bout between Emile Griffith and Benny Paret in 1962 showed an enraged Griffith brutally beating Paret into a coma. Paret tragically died from his injuries. Boxing television contracts were canceled, and politicians argued over the ethics of boxing. It was likely only Muhammad Ali’s rise to fame that saved boxing.