Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to fight Marco Reyes on July 18th, possibly in Texas

By Boxing News - 05/23/2015 - Comments

chavez700By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (48-2-1, 32 KOs) will be looking to bounce back from his recent defeat at the hands of light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara when he faces little known middleweight Marco Reyes (33-2, 24 KOs) on July 18th at a still to be determined venue in Texas.

According to Fight News, Chavez Jr. could be facing the 27-year-old Reyes in Houston, San Antonio or El Paso, Texas. The Chavez Jr-Reyes fight could be televised on Premier Boxing Champions in the United States by one of the networks.

This is a move in the opposite direction for the 29-year-old Chavez Jr, who is going from fighting a light heavyweight to now fighting a much smaller middleweight. The real question is, why is Chavez Jr. fighting guys from the super middleweight division that he’s now fighting in rather than dragging yet another middleweight up in weight for him to fight.

Chavez Jr. moved up to the super middleweight division in 2013, and yet in all this time he’s twice fought a middleweight in Brian Vera, and then finally a light heavyweight. Chavez Jr’s record in his last three fights is 2-1, but it arguably should be 1-2, because his first fight against Brian Vera in 2013 was a controversial win for Chavez Jr. Vera appeared to beat Chavez Jr, and yet he lost the fight by the scores of 98-92, 96-94 and 97-93.

Chavez Jr. doesn’t seem to fit in at super middleweight, and he definitely doesn’t fit in at light heavyweight. The only place that Chavez Jr. did well was in fighting at middleweight, and the reason for that was because he always had a big weight advantage after he would rehydrate to fight his smaller foes.

If there was a way for Chavez Jr. to melt down to 160 once again, he could dominate once again against 90% of his foes. He would be similar to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez with the way that he melts down to his own special weight division of 155, and use his middleweight sized body to defeat his lighter opponents.

Chavez Jr. has a long ways to go for him to rebuild after his loss to Fonfara, and it’s not likely that he’s going to be able to do it. If his goal is to just try and put together fights that have nothing to do with going after a world title, then I think he’ll do a good job of making that happen. But if he wants to try and win a world title at 168 or 175, I don’t think that’s a realistic goal given his limited talent.



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