Chavez Jr: I can still make 168 and be a force

By Boxing News - 07/19/2015 - Comments

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr vs Marco ReyesBy Dan Ambrose: After failing to make weight for his fight last Saturday night, former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (49-2-1, 32 KOs) put on a great deal of weight in rehydrating up to an enormous size to defeat middleweight Marcos Reyes (33-3, 24 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night on Showtime Championship Boxing from the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas.

While there was some fans who said Chavez Jr. only looked big because he was in with a small middleweight, the fact of the matter if Reyes admitted that he rehydrated to 175 pounds after making weight at 168.

Reyes didn’t weigh-in as a middleweight for this fight, because Chavez Jr. wanted it to take place at super middleweight. But if you look at the 175lb Reyes and compare it to how much bigger Chavez Jr. looked, I think it’s easy to guess that Chavez Jr. was no lighter than 190lbs last Saturday and maybe even heavier than that in the 195 region. Since he weighed in at 170 for the weigh-in, it would mean that Chavez Jr. possibly rehydrated 20-25 pounds before the fight. What’s interesting about this is Chavez Jr. claims that he can still make super middleweight and be a dominant force in the division. I don’t think that’s the case.

“I feel I can still make 168. I’m a force at 168,” Chavez Jr. said via Fightnews.com.

Chavez Jr. probably can drain down to 168 to make the weight, but I think he’ll be very sluggish after he puts the weight back on and balloons back up to possibly 190-195 like he looked last night. Just because a fighter can drain himself down by taking off dramatic amounts of weight to fight in a weight class that is not designed for their body, it doesn’t mean that they’re going to be effective in fighting in that weight class.

Chavez Jr. can train like mad to make 168, but he’s still going to have problems after he rehydrates because I think it’s the wrong weight class for him. Chavez Jr. really needs to be fighting at light heavyweight (175). The fighters in that weight class tend to rehydrate to around 190 after making weight at 175.

That’s roughly 15 pounds of water weight they put back on. You don’t see many of the good light heavyweights rehydrating to 195 or above. They mostly tend to be close to 190. It stands to reason that if Chavez Jr. is rehydrating to 190+, then he doesn’t belong in the super middleweight division, and might actually be hurting his performances by insisting at trying to fight in that weight class.

When you outgrow a weight class, you might be able to drain down through super human efforts to still make weight for that division, but it’s going to hurt you in the long run because you’re not going to be able to perform at a high level in that weight class. You can’t tell me that the Chavez Jr. we saw last Saturday night against Reyes is going to be able to compete against the top super middleweights in the division.

If Chavez Jr. looks as sluggish as he did last Saturday night in a fight against a top super middleweight, he’s going to going to get thrashed even worse than he did against Andrzej Fonfara at light heavyweight. Fonfara is a good fighter, but he’s not that good. There are better fighters at 175, and a lot better fighters at 168.

“I’m going to fight at 168 pounds. Little by little, I’m going to get down in weight. We know we’re doing much better work in the gym,” Chavez Jr. said.

I think Chavez Jr. should forget about his dream of fighting in the super middleweight division, because he’s way too big for the division. Chavez Jr. looks like he’s even big for a light heavyweight. If his weight was 195 last Saturday, then Chavez Jr. is big even for light heavyweight standards because there’s not too many of the top fighters in that division rehydrating 20 pounds. It’s too much weight to lose and put back on within 24 hours before a fight.



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