Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Badou Jack possible for April

By Boxing News - 02/11/2016 - Comments

Image: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Badou Jack possible for AprilBy Scott Gilfoid: The once popular former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (49-2-1, 32 KOs) could be back inside the ring challenging WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (20-1-1, 12 KOs) in two months from nw in April, according to the World Boxing Council.

Chavez Jr. has been in training in the LA area and he looks to have gotten his weight down a little from a heavy starting weight. The initial video of Chavez Jr. and trainer Robert Garcia showed a fighter that resembled a big cruiserweight, albeit a flabby one.

Chavez Jr. now looks more like a light heavyweight and appears to be getting near peak condition. I would be surprised if Chavez Jr. gets much better than he looks right now because he’s basically a light heavyweight in size. I mean, Chavez Jr. technically fights at super middleweight, but the way he struggles to make that weight suggests he’s really little more than a light heavyweight.

I can understand why Chavez Jr. wouldn’t want to fight in the 175lb division against guys his own size because we saw what happened last year when Chavez Jr. fought a fighter his own size in Andrzej Fonfara. Chavez Jr. quit on his stool after the 9th round. He later banged on about how Fonfara was bigger than him, but that wasn’t the reality. Fonfara was just taller than Chavez Jr. It looked to me that after years of fighting guys smaller and lighter than himself, Chavez Jr. fell apart when he finally fought someone his own size.

I can’t say that #6 WBA Chavez Jr. really deserves a world title shot at this point in his career. After he got a big payday in his 12 round decision loss to Sergio Martinez in 2012, Chavez Jr. has fought exactly four times in the last four years. Unfortunately, that kind of thing is all too common in the sport of boxing. A fighter gets a big payday and they then start fighting rarely and their once promising careers fizzle out quickly.

I don’t know what Chavez Jr’s excuse is for him not fighting regularly since his big payday fight against Martinez in 2012, but whatever the case, he’s lost extremely important time with his career.

In the last four years, Chavez Jr. has twice beaten middleweight journeyman Brian Vera. He also beat middleweight Marcos Reyes by an unimpressive 10 round decision last July. Chavez Jr. suffered an injury to his left hand in that fight. But before the injury occurred, Chavez Jr. looked sluggish and slow. Reyes, who isn’t big puncher at all, was literally fighting Chavez Jr. to a standstill. That was pretty sad for a couple of reasons. One, Reyes isn’t a puncher at all, and yet he was able to stand in there and nail the bigger Chavez Jr. with shots all night long. Secondly, Reyes isn’t a super middleweight. He was dragged up to the light heavyweight division to fight Chavez Jr. at a catch-weight of 170lbs after Chavez Jr. struggled with making weight for the 168lb division. Had Chavez Jr. fought a decent super middleweight, I think he would have been stopped.

Badou, 32, is coming off an impressive 12 round split decision win over former two-time world title challenger loser George Groves last September on Showtime PPV on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Andre Berto fight card. I thought Badou deserved a unanimous decision, not a split decision. It was a good performance from Badou, who was making his first defense of his WBC title that he won last year in April with an upset 12 round majority decision victory over the talented WBC 168lb champion Anthony Dirrell.

I hate to say it but I think Badou will beat Chavez Jr. like a drum all night long and either score a stoppage late in the fight after Chavez Jr. quits on his stool again or he’ll beat him by a one-sided 12 round decision. I think Chavez Jr. has the talent to be fighting in the super middleweight or the light heavyweight division. In my view, Chavez Jr. was only a good fighter when he was able to melt down to middleweight and fight smaller/lighter guys than himself. Chavez Jr. would rehydrate after making weight for his fights in that division and he would look monstrous next to his opponents. The size helped Chavez Jr. beat a lot guys that he otherwise likely would have lost to if they were the same size as him.



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