Would Chavez Jr. be popular if he didn’t have a famous father?

09/14/201609/13/2012 ESB

Would Chavez Jr. be popular if he didn't have a famous father? By Michael Collins: In looking at how average WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) has looked throughout his boxing career, including his time as the WBC 160 pound champion, one has to wonder whether the 26-year-old Chavez Jr. would be as popular as he is now if his father wasn’t the famous former boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. Chavez Jr. is able to draw huge crowds in stadiums and draw big ratings on HBO despite looking very mediocre.

To be sure, Chavez Jr. is winning fights but a huge part of that seems to be based on his size. He’s winning on being the much heavier fighter compared to the smaller middleweights he’s been facing. That’s part of the criticism of Chavez Jr. He’s like a light heavyweight/cruiserweight sized fighter that is somehow still able to get down to middleweight to compete against smaller guys and get and advantage in doing so.

If you compare Chavez Jr. to his father Chavez Sr. it’s like night and day. Chavez Sr. was had a ton of talent. Everything was so easy for him. He had big time power in both hands, he was light on his feet, and he never had to dehydrate down to fight smaller guys. Chavez Sr. was made for fighting.

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Sergio Martinez wants Chavez Jr. to suffer slowly and painfully on Saturday

09/14/201609/13/2012 ESB

Sergio Martinez wants Chavez Jr. to suffer slowly and painfully on Saturday By Dwight Chittenden: If things go the way that Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) envisions them to be this Saturday, WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) is going to experience a lot of pain and suffering in taking his first loss of his career when they fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Martinez said “It won’t be a quick knockout. I will punish him [Chavez Jr] a lot and after that I will knock him out and he will suffer a lot. I hope someone in your corner stops the fight because I will never stop. I will continue punishing you.”

Unless Chavez Jr’s chin is made of iron it’s not likely that he’ll suffer a great deal. Martinez hits with the kind of power that puts you down when he lands cleanly. Chavez Jr. is painfully slow with his movements and if he gets hurt by one of the southpaw Martinez’s left hands, it’s going to be hard for Chavez Jr. to survive it. Martinez tends to drop his opponents from single shots to the head. If he lands a clean left to the head of Chavez Jr. that could be all she wrote. The suffering won’t enter into it.

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Is Maravilla taking his fight against Chavez Jr. too seriously?

09/14/201609/11/2012 ESB

Is Maravilla taking his fight against Chavez Jr. too seriously? By Robert Jackson: Yesterday, I wrote a piece asking the question as to whether Julio Cesar Chavez Jr was just putting on an act for the cameras which showed him ‘slacking off’ while training for his September 15th fight against Sergio Martinez. HBO’s 24/7 docudrama featured Chavez Jr. deliberately missing scheduled training sessions, sleeping in, and not training at all in one case. In fact Chavez Jr’s body didn’t look as toned as it could be to engage in an upcoming professional fight.

To Chavez Jr’s credit his 7 day weigh-in had him weighing the same 167lbs as Sergio Martinez weighed in at. For a much bigger, heavier man that says that Chavez Jr IS preparing but playing mind games with us all.

All the while Chavez Jr was supposedly missing training sessions, Sergio Martinez was shown training like a machine with the intention as he put it to make Chavez Jr. “regret taking the fight”. Martinez was shown resting in a hyperbaric chamber to increase his blood-oxygen uptake. Maravilla has been shown executing different drills, conditioning, sparring and bag work to get him ready for battle. A lot of discipline and seriousness has been exercised on the Martinez side of things to be ready on fight night. Maybe a little too serious?

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Arum expecting a crowd of 19,000 for Chavez Jr-Martinez fight on September 15th

09/14/201609/07/2012 ESB

Arum expecting a crowd of 19,000 for Chavez Jr-Martinez fight on September 15th By Michael Collins: Bob Arum of Top Rank is predicting that the September 15th fight between WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) and Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) to have a sellout crowd of 19,000 when the two fighters go at it in the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The full capacity of the Thomas & Mack Center is 19,000, and Arum has reportedly opened up an additional 7000 seats at the Wynn in Las Vegas for a close circuit viewing of the fight, according to Fightnews.com.

This is a huge fight given that a lot of boxing fans don’t see Chavez Jr. as a legitimate champion. He’s definitely won over a lot his famous father’s fans by beating up on the lackluster opposition that Arum has put him in with at middleweight. However, in looking at how huge Chavez Jr. has been in fights since 2010, you’ve got to make an argument that much of Chavez Jr’s success at middleweight has stemmed from his uncanny ability to drain down from 180+ to make weight at 160 lbs for his fights.

Chavez Jr. then balloons back up to around 180 to fight and this gives him a big advantage over pretty much all of the middleweights in the division. There are obviously a small percentage of fighters that drain down from high weights to fight at middleweight, but not a lot of them because it’s so difficult to cut that much water weight and not be left weakened in the process.

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Roach: Chavez Jr. is going to set traps against Sergio Martinez to hurt him with body shots

09/14/201609/06/2012 ESB

Roach: Chavez Jr. is going to set traps against Sergio Martinez to hurt him with body shots By Marcus Richardson: Trainer Freddie Roach is coming up with plans for his fighter WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) to attack the body of Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) on September 15th to take the fight out of him. Chavez Jr. needs to be able to work on the inside against Martinez somehow because that’s probably the only chance that the 26-year-old Chavez Jr. has of winning this fight.

Chavez Jr. is not going to be able to beat Martinez by exchanging big shots from a distance. That’s not Chavez Jr’s game. He’s strictly an inside fighter, and if he can’t get that going he’s pretty harmless.

Roach said this about his plans for having Chavez Jr. beat Martinez as quoted by Fightnews.com: “Martinez is a smaller guy and it’s harder to get to his body. But we have traps set to break the body down to take his legs away from him. It’s a difficult task but we’re working on it.”

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Chavez Jr: Sergio Martinez is just a big clown

09/14/201609/05/2012 ESB

Chavez Jr: Sergio Martinez is just a big clown By Marcus Richardson: WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) doesn’t think too highly of his opponent for September 15th, former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) and he plans on shutting his mouth when they face each other in a televised fight on HBO pay per view. The asking price for the fight is $49.99 for boxing fans that have deep enough pockets to shell out that kind of cash in this sorry economy.

Chavez Jr. said this about Martinez today as quoted by Fightnews.com “He’s got a big mouth. On September 15th I’m going to shut him up once and for all. He’s just a big clown.”

Chavez Jr. in fact will be the bigger fighter in the ring on that fight. In looking at recent training video of the 26-year-old Chavez Jr., he appears to be still over 180 pounds and it’s unlikely that he’s going to get down below 180. Chavez Jr. sees his weight as being a significant factor for him in this fight, although he plans on showing some other wrinkles to try keep Martinez guessing. Chavez Jr. can move a little at times, but he’s never shown the ability or the inclination to move for more than a short period.

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Golovkin will be watching Chavez Jr-Martinez fight with great interest, hoping to get the winner

09/14/201609/05/2012 ESB

Golovkin will be watching Chavez Jr-Martinez fight with great interest, hoping to get the winner By Marcus Richardson: WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (24-0, 21 KO’s) will be watching the September 15th fight between WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) and Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) with great interest, as Golovkin wants to fight the winner of that bout. Golovkin, 30, fought for the first time in the United States last Saturday night in destroying #3 WBA Grzegorz Proksa in five rounds in a three knockdown performance from Golovkin. The win has suddenly made Golovkin one of the top fighters in the division in the minds of boxing fans, although the hardcore fans already knew how good Golovkin was going into this fight.

Golovkin said to RingTV “For the fight on September 15 between Chavez Jr. and Martinez, I think it’s a 50-50 fight. Sergio has better skills, but Chavez Jr. is younger and seems to be getting stronger with each fight. I look forward to viewing the Chavez Jr-Martinez fight.”

Golovkin would be a serious threat to either Chavez Jr. or Martinez due to his huge power, excellent inside fighting skills and pinpoint accuracy with his punches. Unlike most of the 180 pound Chavez Jr’s opponents, Golovkin would be able to compete with Chavez Jr. on the inside despite giving away 15+ pounds in weight. Chavez Jr. is a dangerous to the body, but he doesn’t have the power that Golovkin has when punching on the inside to the head and body. Chavez Jr. would have to deal with a lot of powerful head and body shots, and it would very tough for him to be able to take those kinds of shots for 12 rounds.

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Sergio Martinez: My fight with Chavez Jr. will end early, he’ll be on his knees in front of me

09/14/201609/03/2012 ESB

Sergio Martinez: My fight with Chavez Jr. will end early, he'll be on his knees in front of me By Rob Smith: Former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) says he can already seen the outcome of his September 15th fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) and he doesn’t see the fight ending well for the 26-year-old son of boxing legend Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Martinez plans on getting the hulking 180 pound Chavez Jr. out of there early to make a nice clean win without any controversy.

Martinez said “I go over it in my mind and can see it. I can see him [Chavez Jr] on his knees right in front of me…I know the fight will end early. I know I’m going to knock him out.”

With his power and speed, Martinez is going to make it difficult for Chavez Jr. to do the same kinds of things he’s been doing in his recent bouts against more stationary fighters. Chavez Jr. has really had his way against guys with little ability to move like Andy Lee, Peter Manfredo Jr and Marco Antonio Rubio. Lee isn’t that bad when it comes to getting around the ring, but in his case he was fighting Chavez Jr. in a small ring in El Paso, and he compounded it by choosing to slug with him instead of trying staying on the outside.

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Sergio Martinez: I’m going to KO Chavez Jr to avoid getting a bad decision

09/14/201608/31/2012 ESB

Sergio Martinez: I'm going to KO Chavez Jr to avoid getting a bad decision By Rob Smith: Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) plans on taking the Las Vegas judges out of the equation when he meets the highly popular WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) next month on September 15th in their HBO televised pay per view bout at at the Thomas & Mack Center. The fight goes for $49.99 for boxing fans interested in purchasing it on cable. Martinez feels that he’s going to need to knock Chavez Jr. clean out in order to avoid getting jobbed in this fight. He doesn’t have a lot of faith that the judges will give him, a less popular fighter, the decision.

Martinez said this as quoted by the World Boxing Council website: “I’m preparing to defeat Chavez by knockout in order to avoid a bad decision.”

Although Martinez didn’t say specifically why he felt that he needs to KO Chavez Jr. in order to win, he might be referring to Chavez Jr’s controversial fights with Matt Vanda and Carlos Molina in the past. Chavez Jr. got a draw and a decision over Molina in their two fights in 2005 and 2006, and a lot of boxing fans felt that Chavez Jr. deserved to lose at least one, if not two, of those fights.

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Chavez Jr. looking kind of flabby for Martinez fight

08/31/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith: With only two weeks to go before their big fight in Las Vegas, WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) is still kind of flabby around the neck and jowls for his fight against Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) on September 15th at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. I’m not sure what’s missing from Chavez Jr’s training camp because I’ve never seen him so fat before a fight before. Judging from recent photos taken of him on fightnews.com, Chavez Jr has little double chin going and his face looks flabby like he’s been eating too good.

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