Chavez Jr. vs. Macklin a possibility

By Boxing News - 05/21/2015 - Comments

Image: Chavez Jr. vs. Macklin a possibilityBy Scott Gilfoid: A fight between former three time world title challenger Matthew Macklin (32-6, 21 KOs) and former WBC 160lb title holder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (48-2-1, 32 KOs) is a possibility. Chavez Jr., 29, is interested in the fight, which would take place at 168. However, Macklin and his promoter Eddie Hearn are both concerned with weight for the fight.

Macklin fights at middleweight, and he would be giving up a lot of weight to Chavez Jr. if he moved up to super middleweight to take the fight.

While WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin doesn’t mind moving up to 168 to fight the bigger Carl Froch, Macklin and Hearn are not quite comfortable at giving up weight against Chavez Jr., who tends to rehydrate up in weight. It’s possible that Chavez Jr. would come into the fight with Macklin weighing well over 180 pounds.

“I would consider giving him a few pounds. Listen if he could meet me halfway, maybe at 164lbs, I would go for it but to go up to 168lbs, I’ve giving a lot of an advantage away,” Macklin said via the Dailymail.co.uk. “I think it would be a physical fight as well but let’s see what happens in the next few days.”

Macklin won his last fight against a badly over-matched Sandor Micsko by a 2nd round knockout this month on May 9th. But before that, Macklin was stopped in the 10th round by #1 WBC Jorge Sebastian Heiland last year in November in a fight in which Macklin ran out of gas against a very limited looking contender.

Turning down a fight against Chavez Jr. would obviously be a huge missed opportunity for the 33-year-old Macklin because he would get a good payday in a fight like this. If Macklin takes the fight, it will be staged in Las Vegas, Nevada. Chavez Jr. needs a win right now because he was stopped in the 10th round last April by light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara.

Going from facing a light heavyweight back to fighting a middleweight will obviously help Chavez Jr. find success, but it’s not going to help him in the long run. Chavez Jr. needs to start fighting guys from the division he’s fighting in at 168 instead of him continually dragging up middleweights to fight him at either light heavyweight of super middleweight. Before Chavez Jr’s loss to Fonfara, he’d faced middleweight journeyman Brian Vera in back to back fights. This is after Chavez Jr. had moved up to super middleweight. Why he keeps fighting middleweights is the big question.

“There have been a lot of discussions about Chavez-Macklin, I love the fight, but the problem is the weight,” Hearn said to the Dailymail.co.uk.

As bad as Chavez Jr. looked against Fonfara, I don’t see why the weight would really matter. Chavez Jr. is vulnerable. I don’t see Macklin winning the fight, but he at least has a chance to win. If you put Macklin in with a good middleweight, he’s going to have major problems too. Macklin might as well get a good payday if he’s in the position to lose again. That’s the way I see it. If you throw Macklin in with a top middleweight like Daniel Jacobs, Peter Quillin, or Tureano Johnson, the results are likely going to be the same as if you put Macklin in with Chavez Jr. The money would be better against Chavez Jr. though.



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