By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (49-2-1, 32 KOs) will be looking to return to the ring in 2016 to try to capture the WBC super middleweight title belonging to champion Badou Jack. Chavez Jr, 29, has been out of action with a left hand injury since his win over middleweight Marcos Reyes five months ago in July in a fight Chavez Jr won by a 10 round unanimous decision.
That fight took place at a catch-weight of 170lbs. That was Chavez Jr’s third fight at light heavyweight in his last four fights since moving out of the middleweight division in 2013. Chavez Jr is technically a super middleweight, but he’s only fought in that weight class once in the last two years in a fight against Brian Vera in March 2014.
The rest of Chavez Jr.s fights in the last two years have occurred at light heavyweight. However, Chavez Jr doesn’t want to fight in the 175lb division for some reason despite him looking every bit like a light heavyweight in terms of size.
In this workout video below, Chavez Jr. seems to be big enough to fight in the cruiserweight division. He’s working out with his trainer Robert Garcia in his Oxnard, California gym.
Chavez Jr’s injured left hand is reportedly at 70 percent, and it’s likely that he’ll be able to return to the ring at some point in 2016. Badou Jack is very interested in defending his title against Chavez Jr, so he shouldn’t have any problems getting that fight.
“I am 29 years-old. I think I’m in the prime of my career because I have experience, maturity, and clearer of what I want: to be world champion again WBC,” Chavez Jr said to Univision.com.
Chavez Jr lost to light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara by a 9th round stoppage earlier this year in April. It was a one-sided fight with Fonafara punishing Chavez Jr and knocking him down in the 9th. After the 9th round ended, Chavez Jr chose not to continue the fight. He quit on his stool and didn’t come out for the 10th round.
Fonfara is a good fighter, but hardly a world beater at 175. There are arguably better fighters in that division such as Sergey Kovalev, Artur Beterbiev, Adonis Stevenson and Sullivan Barrera. Chavez Jr shouldn’t have been beaten this badly, as Fonfara barely beat Nathan Cleverly in his last fight. Cleverly is not a great fighter. He was just willing to stand and trade with Fonfara for 12 rounds. Chavez Jr. seemed to wilt from the pressure that Fonfara put on him in their fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7zuGdT-rJQ
Chavez Jr is ranked No.5 by the World Boxing Association. His ranking puts him in position to fight for pretty much whatever title he wants to in 2016. Chavez Jr likes the idea of fighting Badou Jack for the WBC title. Badou likes to stand and throw body shots in his fights. That’s a style that could work for Chavez Jr if he’s in shape because he likes to attack the body.
If Chavez Jr comes up empty against Badou Jack, then he’s going to need to think about somehow finding his way back to the middleweight division. If Chavez Jr gets soundly beaten by Badou, then he definitely needs to find an expert at nutrition to help him get back down to the 160lb division, because I don’t see him being able to find any success at super middleweight and definitely not at light heavyweight. We already saw what happened to Chavez Jr when he attempted to find a spot in the 175lb division with his one-sided loss to Fonfara.
If Chavez Jr. could move back down to middleweight, he would have a good chance of beating the arguably lesser champions in that weight class like WBO belt holder Billy Joe Saunders or WBA “regular” champion Daniel Jacobs. Those are fighters that can be worn down with pressure, and that’s something that Chavez Jr is good at doing in his fights. If nothing else, Chavez Jr is a very good pressure fighter with excellent body punching skills. I think he would give Jacobs and Saunders a lot of problems with his size and pressure.
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