19.05.07 – By James Slater: On the under card of the hotly anticipated fight between Miguel Cotto and Zab Judah, a quite interesting bout will take place. Not only will this fight provide fans with another chance to see one of the sport’s most exciting and heavily hyped prospects in action, there is also a side bar of a story to the match up. For back in September of 2005, one Grover Wiley put an end to the fighting days of the great Julio Cesar Chavez. In a huge upset, the unheralded Grover forced Chavez Senior to quit in his corner at the end of the fifth round. A busted hand was the reason the Mexican legend gave for his submission but, whatever the case had been, the boos rang loud and clear. It was a sad ending to a glorious career.
But now, on the June 9th card at Madison Square Garden, New York, Julio’s son and namesake will get the chance at avenging his all-time great father. Back in 2005 and the time of Senior’s loss to Wiley, Chavez Junior was TKO’ing Corey Alcaron in two rounds on the under card. Then in no way the main attraction, things have changed some now. With his statistically impressive record of 31-0-1 (24) the twenty-one year old has emerged as a good fighter in his own right.
He has a hell of a long way to go before getting anywhere near as respected as his father is, but in his next fight he gets the chance to do something his father couldn’t do – at least when an aging fighter – and beat up the thirty-two year old Grover Wiley.
Let’s face it, Julio shouldn’t have too much difficulty in restoring pride to his family name. Since his upset win over “J.C Superstar,” Wiley has gone 0-3 (1). The KO loss he suffered came at the hands of another Julio Cesar, in the twenty year old prospect named Garcia. Two rounds was all it took for this emerging talent to take care of Wiley, therefore a fight of similar
length should probably be expected when Chavez gets in there with him. Wiley’s stats, at 30-9-1 (14) suggest he is a capable fighter, yet when one looks at the recent form described above it’s clear he doesn’t have much of a chance at knocking off the younger Chavez as he did his dad.
Still, KO’ing Wiley will mean a whole hell of a lot to both junior and senior. Imagine how father will feel seeing his son brutalising the man who so humiliated him two years ago? A huge feeling of satisfaction will no doubt be felt by the now forty-four year old. Another thought, one unimaginable to both members of the Mexican fighting dynasty, though, is how would Senior feel if Wiley somehow managed to do to his son what he did to he himself!? As I’ve said, an unimaginable scenario for both men.
Look for Junior to smash Wiley all over the ring, in a somewhat gleeful manner, before stopping his over matched foe in around four rounds. In the process making his legendary father – who will without a doubt be sitting front row for this one, if not actually working his son’s corner – extremely happy and perhaps somewhat relived also.
This side bar of a story to the fight may be seen as nothing more than hype, but I believe the sheer pride that is evident in both Mexicans warriors suggests it is far more than just that. Revenge, and the desire to achieve it, is very, very real in this case.