Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. J’León Love possible for July 16 or 23

By Boxing News - 06/06/2016 - Comments

Image: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. J'León Love possible for July 16 or 23

By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Freddie Roach says former WBC super middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. 49-2-1, 32 KOs) is doing well in training and showing up every day for the sessions without skipping days. Roach says the now 30-year-old Chavez Jr. could be back in the ring next month on July 16 or 23 against J’León Love (22-1, 12 KOs) in either Texas or Los Angeles, California.

Chavez Jr. has not fought since July of last year in beating the much lighter Marcos Reyes by a 10 round unanimous decision. The fight was much closer than the lopsided scores (97-92 and 98-91) handed in by two of the judges. The score that best reflected the fight was the 96-93 score in favor of Chavez Jr.

The fight took place at a catch-weight of 170lb, which suggests that Chavez Jr. was still having problems making the 168lb limit.

“We are considering two opponents and one of the possibilities is J’León Love,” said Roach to ESPN Deportes. “His next fight could be in Texas, or here in Los Angeles.”

Chavez Jr. looked very, very slow and heavy in his last two fights against Reyes and Andrzej Fonfara in 2015. Chavez Jr. was stopped in the 9th round by Fonfara when Chavez Jr. failed to come out for the 10th. Fonfara knocked Chavez Jr. down in the 9th with a shot right hand to the head.

Love, 28, has won his last four fights since being destroyed by Rogelio Medina in three rounds in March 2014. Love hasn’t faced a good opponent since that time, which is why he’s probably winning.

Chavez Jr. is still ranked #5 by the World Boxing Association despite his long layoff from the ring. Just how much longer the WBA will keep him ranked in their top 15 is unclear. At some point, the WBA needs to weed out inactive fighters like Chavez Jr. so that other more deserving fighters get a chance to be ranked highly.

“Thirteen out of thirteen. It takes thirteen days in a row and has not failed me in any workouts. He arrives every day on time and is working very hard,” said Roach about Chavez Jr.

Chavez Jr. was a decent fighter when he fought at middleweight, but only because he enjoyed a huge weight advantage over many of his opponents. Once Chavez Jr. could no longer melt down to the middleweight division to make 160, he was in trouble because he had to fight at super middleweight against guys roughly his own size.

Even after moving up to 168, Chavez Jr. has continued to fight guys from the 160lb division for some reason. Since moving up to super middleweight, Chavez Jr. has fought Brian Vera (twice) and Reyes. Both of those guys are middleweights. Chavez Jr. stepped up to light heavyweight last year in his fight against Fonfara, and he was destroyed. Afterwards, Chavez Jr. talked about how much bigger Fonfara was than him. However, Fonfara wasn’t bigger than Chavez Jr. He was the same size as him. I think it might have seemed like Fonfara was bigger to Chavez Jr. because he’s been so accustomed to fighting guys that were lighter than him. When he finally did face someone his own size, he wasn’t ready for it.

As much as I think Roach is a good trainer, I don’t think he’s a miracle worker. I do not see him being able to turn back the clock on Chavez Jr’s career to make him the fighter that he was four years ago. One of the problems that will keep Roach from doing that is Chavez Jr. appearing to have lost hand speed. I think that’s an aging issue.

The other problem that will likely keep Chavez Jr. from finding success in the remainder of his career is the fact that he’s going to be forced to fight guys his own size at super middleweight. Unless he bulks up more so that he has a huge weight advantage over them too, I don’t see Chavez Jr. being able to find success again with his career. His lack of hand and foot speed are probably the major reasons why Chavez Jr. won’t find success again.

Love was blown out pretty badly by Medina. I think Chavez Jr. will have a good chance of beating Love if he goes after him early the way that Medina did. Love isn’t a top 15 contender though. Beating Love won’t mean that Chavez Jr. will find success against the top super middleweights. I think he’ll get destroyed by most of the top 168lb fighters.