CHAVEZ JR. FACING BIGGEST TEST
Defeating Alvarez would put career back on track
Not long ago, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was the subject of ridicule in boxing circles. Photos of the four-time middleweight champion ballooning in weight between fights circulated on social media. He gained a reputation for being lazy and a party boy and was accused of living off his legendary father’s name.
He eschewed training, tested positive for marijuana and lost hundreds of thousands of winnings. In the biggest fight of his career until now, the middleweight championship against Sergio Martinez in 2012, Chavez spent 11 rounds getting beaten up by Martinez, then in the final round decided to fight, turning the tables and knocking Martinez down. But he couldn’t finish the Argentine and lost the fight by unanimous decision.
One of the other low points in Junior’s career came in his loss to light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara in 2015, when he retired on his stool after taking a beating for nine rounds. The handsome son of the greatest Mexican fighter of all time considered hanging up his gloves, sparing his family and fans further embarrassment.
“It may have crossed my mind at some point, obviously after the Fonfara fight and the (Marcos) Reyes fight. Those were two fights where I don’t think that I had the same amount of passion that I needed to have,” Chavez, 31, said during a conference call with reporters. “But this fight is a lot different. This fight has created a lot of passion in me, a lot of enthusiasm, and I think that that’s the difference in this. Excited about this fight, and I think that you’re going to see a different Julio that’s excited.”
“This fight” is his highly anticipated Cinco de Mayo weekend showdown against fellow Mexican and fierce rival Canelo Alvarez on Saturday at sold-out T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (HBO pay-per-view, 9 p.m. ET). This is a battle for the hearts and souls of Mexican fight fans.
Chavez (50-2-1, 32 KOs) considers this fight “my last opportunity, and I’m going to take advantage of it and do the best I can,” he said.
But doing his best requires more than passion. So Chavez Jr. brought in controversial but effective Memo Heredia, who was involved in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative performanceenhancing drug scandal, as his strength and conditioning coach and hired Nacho Beristain to train him for the biggest fight of his life, in more ways than one.
All indications are Chavez is in the best shape of his career. He is nearly on weight already, which many believed, based on Chavez’s past failures, would be all but impossible at 164.5 pounds, more than 10 pounds under what Chavez has fought at the last several years. Because it’s written in his contract that he will be fined $1 million per pound over the contracted weight of 164.5, the incentive for coming in at or under the weight is huge.
“The difference is I was listening to my corner, Mr. Beristain,” Chavez said. “He had me doing certain training, and I did it. It was very difficult in the beginning getting used to this new regimen, but it’s something that I did. I followed it, and I think that’s the difference in this fight.
“The reason I chose Nacho is that I think he’s a great Mexican trainer and I think he has the correct character that matches with me. I saw something in him, some type of connection, that I felt would be very good for me.”
Chavez Sr., a Hall of Famer and three-division, six-time world champion, has high expectations for his son, which adds to the pressure felt by Junior.
“It’s OK when he’s around. It’s just important for him to understand that he’s not my trainer,” explained Chavez Jr., born and raised and still living in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. “Sometimes we don’t always transmit instructions the way we would like for them to come out, but I have my own trainer. But I will say that a lot of what I learned in boxing, I learned it watching my father as a little kid.”
The size difference between Chavez and Alvarez could be a key to the fight as well. Chavez has been fighting at 175 pounds for the last few years, while Canelo has never fought at more than 155 pounds.
“Well, it has been said that in boxing that that’s an important factor; that the weight and the bigger person is always going to have the advantage,” Chavez said. “That, I think, is true.
“But with this fight, I’m just focusing on staying strong, making the weight the right way so that I’m in there and able to compete at that level. But I think really that this fight is going to come down to me being intelligent, me being smart, and I think that’s going to be the difference.”