By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will either fight at 160 or 165 lbs. for his next fight on August 3rd against either Martin Murray or Brian Vera. The choice of opponent will depend on whether Chavez Jr. can get down to 160 lbs. or not.
If he can boil down to 160, then Martin Murray will be the choice. If not, then it’ll be Vera.
Arum said to RingTV “Alex [Ariza, the strength and condition coach for Chavez Jr.] has got to figure out whether he [Chavez Jr.] can get him down to 160. The kid [Chavez Jr.] believes that he can make 160. The 165 pounds would be an interim step to go down to 165.”
So what we could see is Chavez Jr. fighting Vera at 165 lbs. and then later fighting Murray at 160 in early 2014.
I don’t know why Arum is still persisting in having Chavez Jr. fight at middleweight because he’s been struggling with the weight for the past couple of years.
It seems pretty obvious in looking at how much water weight Chavez Jr. has to strip off just to make 160 that he shouldn’t be fighting at this weight any longer, and he should have moved up in weight back in 2011.
It’s understandable why Arum might not want Chavez Jr. to move up to 168 to fight at super middleweight. Arum obviously sees guys like Andre Ward, who badly wants to fight Chavez Jr., Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler, and likely doesn’t like Chavez Jr’s chances against any of them.
The fact of the matter is the middleweight division might be the only place where Chavez Jr. has the chance of winning a world title. If he moves up to 168, he’s going to be in a world of hurt against Ward, Froch and Kessler, and probably even Robert Stieglitz.
Even at 168, Chavez Jr. would still have a huge weight advantage over his opponents because if he fights at that weight, he’ll stopping boiling down to 190 to make 160. We’ll then likely see Chavez Jr. take off enough weight to get down to 200 and then dehydrate to 168. He would then rehydrate up 190s and fight with a big weight advantage.
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