Edwin Rosario vs. Julio César Chávez, billed as Duel in the Desert, was a professional boxing match contested on November 21, 1987, for the WBA lightweight title.

[2] Just before his scheduled title defense against Danilo Cabrera on August 21, 1987, reigning WBC super featherweight champion Julio César Chávez announced that his fight against Cabrera would likely be his last in the super featherweight division and that would be moving up in weight to challenge WBA lightweight champion Edwin Rosario in the fall of that year.

[3] Rosario, in his second reign as lightweight champion, was made a 7–5 underdog against the now 54–0 Chávez.

By the 11th round, Rosario, who was bleeding from both his nose and mouth, suffering from a cut above his right eye and his left eye was swollen shut, had gotten backed into a corner by Chávez, who relentlessly attacked the exhausted Rosario.

Finally, with Rosario taking a tremendous amount of abuse, his corner threw a white towel in the ring to signify surrender and in turn, Richard Steele stopped the fight with 22 seconds remaining, giving Chávez the victory by technical knockout.