Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) will likely look like a cruiserweight or a mini-heavyweight tonight when he steps inside the ring to face the much smaller and much lighter Brian Vera (23-6, 14 KO’s) in a fight that will be televised by HBO from the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Since the sanctioning bodies aren’t going to step in and prevent Chavez Jr. from rehydrating to way above the 173 lb. agreed upon weight for the fight, we’re likely going to see Chavez Jr. coming into the fight close to 200 lbs. after he rehydrates from the 172.4 lbs. that he weighed in at yesterday during the official weigh-in.
Chavez Jr. looked emaciated yesterday at the weigh-in, while looked ready to fight at 171.2 lbs. When you see things like that it tells you that the emaciated fighter is going to likely balloon up in weight to a much higher weight than they weighed in at. That means that Chavez Jr. could wind up well over 190 and possibly over 200.
Vera and Chavez Jr. were supposed to weigh-in at 168, but Chavez Jr. couldn’t make that weight resulting in the weight being pushed up to 173 lbs. 2 days before the fight.
Vera is counting on Chavez Jr. being out of shape and weakened from having to take off so much weight just to get down to 172. That’s not likely to happen though because Chavez Jr. has been draining to make weight for the last couple of years, and he’s well used to this kind of thing. He never looks weak after he rehydrates, and he tends to have a huge weight advantage over most of his opponents.
What’s weird about this fight is why Chavez Jr. wanted to fight a middleweight. If he was going to fight at 173, he should have picked a light heavyweight to face instead of getting a middleweight and then dragging him up 13 pounds to 173 to fight him.
At least if Chavez Jr. had fought a full-fledged light heavyweight, he would have a fighting chance at winning because he would likely rehydrate up to the 190s just like Chavez Jr. But by having Vera, it increases Chavez Jr’s chances of winning by a huge margin. Perhaps that’s why Chavez Jr. is such a huge favorite to win this fight. You have him a big 20 pound weight advantage and he’s going to win most of his fights.