Chavez Jr. likely to sue NSAC over $900K fine

By Boxing News - 03/03/2013 - Comments

chavez923By Dan Ambrose: The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) gave former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. a hefty $900,000 fine for him testing positive for marijuana in September of last year for his fight with Sergio Martinez. According to fightnews.com, Chavez Jr. will be filing a lawsuit to sue the NSAC for the huge fine because it’s out of proportion from previous fines given out to other fighters.

Chavez Jr’s promoter Bob Arum pointed out that former world champion Fernando Vargas was fined $100,000 for testing positive for steroids, and yet Chavez Jr. is fined nine times that amount for testing positive for a non-performance enhancing drug. Marijuana doesn’t enhance an athletes’ performance, and it’s more likely to hurt their performance than anything.

According to the record.com.mx, Chavez Jr. wants to clear up the matter because he says wants to fight in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2014. He can’t have all this hanging over his head the next time he fights there.

It’s hard to understand why the NSAC decided to give Chavez Jr. such a huge fine. He did previously test positive for a diuretic in 2009. Diuretics are used by some fighters to shed weight in days before fights in order to make weight. It’s unclear why Chavez Jr. used that drug, but he was already suspended for that back then.

In theory, the marijuana should have been looked at in a different light than a performance enhancing drug because it’s considered a recreational drug, although it’s definitely a banned drug by the NSAC.

There needs to be different penalties for different drugs because it doesn’t make a lot of sense to fine a fighter steeply for marijuana if it’s nothing they get any benefit from using. The $900K is almost one-third of Chavez Jr’s entire $3 million purse for the Sergio Martinez fight. That’s a huge fine for what he did.



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