By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is reportedly working on a rematch between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (47-1-1, 32 KO’s) and Bryan Vera (23-7, 14 KO’s) for December 14th in Texas, according to RingTV. The fight, like last Saturday’s, will be televised by HBO. It’s unknown what made Arum change his mind about putting on a rematch, because he was going to move Chavez Jr. forward towards a title shot against one of the 168 lb. world champions.
Chavez Jr. is on board with the rematch, and he doesn’t mind the fact that he’ll be taking a chance in fighting in Vera’s home state of Texas.
Arum obviously sees the potential of putting the Chavez Jr-Vera fight in one of the large stadiums in Texas like the Alamodome in San Antonio or the Sun Bowl in El Paso. Chavez Jr. fought Andy Lee and Marco Antonio Rubio both in Texas in front of huge numbers of fans.
Arum told RingTV “I’m okay with it [Chavez Jr-Vera rematch], particularly in light of the incredible rating that the fight got on Saturday. Obviously, it cries for a rematch. I’ve talked to Artie [Pelullo] and I’m trying to have it done this year in December by HBO in Texas.”
The Chavez Jr-Vera fight brought in 1,416,000 viewers on HBO last Saturday, which are good numbers but they’re still down from what Chavez Jr. had for the Lee and Rubio fights. Chavez Jr. vs. Lee brought in 1.6 million viewers on HBO, while the Chavez Jr. vs. Rubio brought in 1.9 million viewers. That tells you that Chavez Jr. has lost some fans.
I’m not sure if a rematch between Chavez Jr. and Rubio will bring in 1.6 million viewers and above, but it’ll least bring in over 1 million viewers and give Chavez Jr. a chance to prove that he’s the better fighter than Rubio. He’s got to do a much better job in the rematch if he wants to remain a top draw in the sport. Another questionable decision like last Saturday’s is going to be a major blow to Chavez Jr’s career.
Chavez Jr. needs to drop some weight for the rematch, because whatever weight he came into the fight last Saturday, it was too heavy for him. He elected not to be weighed on fight night, but he looked like he was in the mid-190s at least.
It’s doubtful that Chavez Jr. would agree to fight Vera at 160 for December, but 168 should be doable if Chavez Jr. keeps working out and doesn’t let himself go. That’s not much time before the rematch, so Chavez Jr. is going to have to keep training to make sure that he doesn’t balloon up to 220 or more. He’s not going to be able to take off a ton of weight at the last season and make 168.
Vera outworked Chavez Jr. by out-landing him 176 to 125, according to Compu-Box. It looked a lot worse than that to me. The judges gave Chavez Jr. the fight by the scores of 96-94, 97-93 and 98-92, but very few people believe that he deserved the win. When you have 3 judges going against what the boxing world believes, it just makes the judges look kind of silly and it cheapens the win.
I guess that’s why Chavez Jr. and Arum have done an about face in terms of giving Vera a rematch. Chavez Jr. initially was against letting Vera get a rematch, but now he’s changed his mind. No doubt Chavez Jr. has seen what has been said about his victory, and he realizes that he can’t walk away from the fight because too many people felt that he lost it.
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