Chavez Jr-Reyes averages 663K viewers on Showtime

By Boxing News - 07/21/2015 - Comments

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr vs Marco ReyesBy Dan Ambrose: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr’s fight last Saturday night against Marcos Reyes (33-3, 24 KOs) averaged only 663,000 viewers with a peak of 707,000 viewers on Showtime Championship Boxing from the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas. The Chavez Jr-Reyes numbers were above Chavez Jr’s ratings for his last fight against Andrzej Fonfara last April. That fight averaged 618,000 viewers, according to Dan Rafael.

Chavez Jr. used to bring in huge ratings each time he fought, but they’ve really gone downhill after his back to back poor performances against Brian Vera in 2013 and 2014. Chavez Jr. averaged 1.39 million viewers for his fight against Vera in 2014.

That was just a simple fight with Chavez Jr. fighting a journeyman from the middleweight division, and yet it still brought in great ratings. But since then, Chavez Jr. has seen his ratings deteriorate in his last two fights against Fonfara and Reyes.

“Per Nielsen, Chavez-Reyes averaged 663k viewers on Showtime (707k peak), 7% better than Chavez-Fonfara (618k ave) in April (more) #boxing,” Dan Rafael said on his Twitter. “Chavez fan base has badly eroded. In 2014, Vera 2 most watched fight of year. Averaged 1.39M viewers. Sat fight less than half that. Also Sat on Showtime, Villanueva-Arroyo co-feature averaged 464k viewers (533 peak) & Imam-Angulo opener averaged 433k (460 peak).”

If Chavez Jr. is going to get his ratings back up to where they were before, he’s going to need to take off a ton of weight, get in great shape, and start facing high quality opposition. It’s not a good sign that Chavez Jr. is thinking about fighting Lucian Bute next. That fighter is considered totally shot by a lot of boxing fans.

Bute has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights and has only fought three times in the last three years. That kind of shows what condition Bute’s career is in at this point. It’s basically on life support, and Chavez Jr. wants to fight him to try and finish him off. It’s not very sporting.

Chavez Jr. looked really bad against Reyes, as he only seemed capable of fighting hard for less than one minute of every round. His won the rounds based on his superior punching power and size, but he looked absolutely terrible in there. Chavez Jr. should have been able to demolish Reyes, but he couldn’t do it because he was too slow and too lethargic on his feet. Reyes was able to easily elude Chavez Jr. in most of the rounds and pick him off with shots to the head and body.

For Chavez Jr. to get back to where he was in his prime of career back in 2003, he’s going to need to take off at least 15-20 pounds. He shouldn’t be fighting at super middleweight, or in this case light heavyweight. Chavez Jr. should move back down to middleweight and weigh no more than 170lbs after rehydrating for his fights in the 160lb division.

Currently, Chavez Jr. looks like he’s weighing in the 190s after he rehydrates, and he looks slow at that weight. I think it’s possible for him to trim down 20 pounds, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work and dedication from him. It’s also going to require that Chavez Jr. stay away from the refrigerator and fast food joints because he’s just too big for his own good.

Chavez Jr’s trainer Robert Garcia should put Chavez Jr. on double day workouts, and have him eat only rice and fish. He should also hire his former strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza to whip Chavez Jr. into shape. Ariza could get the weight off Chavez Jr. if he doesn’t fire him, skip workouts or ignore what he’s trying to get him to do.



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