Evidence for
Bobby Chacon, Rafael Limón, and the Fifteenth-Round Knockdown That Decided Their Fourth Fight

Companion notes

Bobby Chacon’s 1982 late knockdown over Rafael Limón produced a split-decision title win

The public record consistently places the fourth Chacon-Limón fight on December 11, 1982, at Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento, with the WBC super featherweight title at stake. Contemporary reporting and archive materials document a late fifteenth-round knockdown, followed by a split-decision victory for Bobby Chacon.

The Paper Trail & Official Records

The documentary trail identifies a four-fight series between Bobby Chacon and Rafael Limón, culminating in the December 11, 1982 bout at Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento, California. The bout listing ties the contest to the WBC super featherweight title, and the recorded outcome is a split-decision win for Chacon. The most useful records here are the contemporaneous fight result summaries and archive reproductions of the bout footage, which align on the date, venue, title context, and final decision rather than leaving those points to recollection alone. [S1], [S3]

The archival material also preserves the fight as a scored event rather than a narrative anecdote. The three judges are identified in the record as Angelo L. Guzman, Tamotsu Tomihara, and Carlos Padilla Jr., with final cards reported as 142-141, 141-140, and 143-141 for Chacon. That score pattern is critical for provenance because it shows the result was not a unanimous call or a referee stoppage, but a narrow, judge-mediated decision supported by the recorded cards. [S1], [S3]

Forensic Chronology & Turning Points

The verified chronology shows a long, escalating rivalry: Limón won the first fight in 1975, the second ended in a technical draw in 1979 after an accidental headbutt, and Chacon took the third by split decision in 1980. By the time of the fourth bout, the sequence had already established a balanced, high-pressure matchup. The documentary record therefore frames the 1982 contest as a decisive rubber match in a four-fight series, not an isolated championship defense. [S1], [S3]

The fight’s turning points are specific and well documented. Limón dropped Chacon with 20 seconds left in the third round, then knocked him down again in round ten. Chacon responded with the decisive late surge, scoring a knockdown of Limón with ten seconds remaining in the fifteenth round. That final-round moment is the key forensic fact because it aligns the timing of the late knockdown with the eventual narrow margin on the scorecards and explains why the bout is remembered as a last-second reversal. [S1], [S3], [S2]

Evidentiary Boundaries & Negative Findings

The established record supports only a limited set of claims: the fight occurred on the stated date and at the stated venue, it featured the WBC super featherweight title, and Chacon won by split decision after a late knockdown. The sources do not establish any criminal conduct, regulatory sanction, judging scandal, or hidden administrative proceeding connected to the result. Nor do they provide evidence that the outcome rested on anything beyond the recorded knockdowns and the judges’ cards. [S1], [S2]

Equally important, the negative findings matter. No source in this set supports allegations that the result was overturned, improperly altered, or formally disputed in a disciplinary forum. The record instead closes on a conventional boxing outcome: a final-round knockdown, three independent scorecards, and a split-decision win for Chacon. For the public record layer, that is the safest evidentiary boundary—what can be proven is the fight’s sequence and scoring, while broader claims about corruption or impropriety remain unsubstantiated. [S1], [S3]

Source key

The associated evidence packet contains visible source URLs, source roles and the complete claim ledger.