By Dan Ambrose: Mexican boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez is very concerned with his son former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (49-2-1, 32 KOs) after he left training camp this week. Chavez Sr. sees this as a potentially discipline issue. However, Chavez Jr. says he wanted to run on the beach after having an injury problem in training camp. He also wanted to see his daughter.
Chavez Jr. is training for a potential April 30 title fight against WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (20-1-1, 12 KOs).
“I don’t know what happened,” said Chavez Sr. to ESPN. “I’m very sad and disappointed but also very concerned about his lack of discipline. He was preparing well in Big Bear.”
Chavez Jr. hasn’t fought since last July when he beat middleweight Marcos Reyes by a 10 round decision. Chavez Jr. suffered a hand injury in that fight and later needed surgery. It’s taken him this long to rehab his hand and come back from the injury.
Before that, Chavez Jr. was stopped by light heavyweight slugger Andrzej Fonfara in nine rounds last year in April in a fight that took place in the light heavyweight division. Chavez Jr. admitted afterwards that he hadn’t trained as hard as he should have, and that he didn’t belong in the light heavyweight division against someone that big.
“I do not know what happened. I do not know why he said that,” Chavez Jr. said to ESPN Deportes about his father Julio Sr. “I came down from Big Bear to Los Angeles to check me the heel. Then I went running to Santa Monica. I saw me daughter and I’m coming back to do sparring because I feel very good with my heel. Maybe he was angry because I do not do things as he wants, but I respect it because it is my father, but I have 30 years, “Chavez Jr. said.
None of this will really matter if Chavez Jr. gets beaten by Badou Jack, which is a very real possibility. Chavez Jr’s once promising career has been sinking every since his one-sided 12 round decision loss to Sergio Martinez in 2012. Chavez Jr. was suspended after that loss for testing positive for a banned substance. Since coming off of his suspension, Chavez Jr. has fought only four times in fights against Brian Vera [x 2], Fonfara and Marcos Reyes. Chavez Jr. looked good in the second Vera fight, but he was poor in the other fights.
It looks to me that Chavez Jr. isn’t going to be able to turn his career around. He looks slower, heavier, and not the fighter that he was since moving up in weight. One of the things that made Chavez Jr. successful was him having a weight advantage over his opponents in the middleweight division. Chavez Jr. is very similar to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in that his weight advantage over his opponents is what helped him find success. Chavez Jr. would dehydrate to make 160, and then balloon up in weight to have a big size advantage over his opponents. However, once Chavez Jr. could no longer make 160, his career has slowed and he no longer looks like the same fighter. Chavez Jr. might have a weight advantage over Badou Jack on April 30, but it probably won’t be enough of an advantage to help him like it did when he was fighting lighter guys in the 160lb division.
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