By Dan Ambrose: The 6’0” Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has already seen a flaw in the game of Golden Boy Promotions fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez from watching his past fights, and that’s how he struggles when he faces bigger guys. Chavez Jr. notes that Canelo had problems in his fights against Erislandy Lara and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Chavez Jr. is obviously going to be looking to take advantage of his own size advantage over the 5’8” Canelo when the two of them fight each other on HBO pay-per-view on May 6 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
One way for Chavez Jr. to get the better of Canelo is to make sure he doesn’t lean forward so much when pressuring him. It makes sense to lean forward when throwing body shots, but Chavez Jr. often leans forward before he even gets to the inside. He does that in a strange way, which makes him vulnerable to getting hit.
Normally, tall fighters that throw body punches don’t lean forward until they’re in close to start throwing body shots. Chavez Jr. walks forward while leaning and it’s a habit that could get him in trouble against Canelo.
“He is a good fighter and throws great combinations we will have a strong preparation to be victorious,” said Chavez Jr. to fightnews.com. “The fights he has struggled in were against Mayweather and Lara because they were bigger guys,” Chavez Jr. on Canelo.
The 5’8” Mayweather wasn’t a bigger guy than Canelo. They were the same height. What made Mayweather seem like the bigger guy were his longer arms. Mayweather was able to stay on the outside and jab Canelo all night long, and he was helpless to do anything about it because he didn’t arm length to compete with Mayweather when he was on the outside.
It was the same story when Canelo fought the 5’9” Erislandy Lara in 2014. While both of them were almost the same height, Lara’s longer arms enabled him to jab Canelo from the outside. Lara got the better of Canelo, but two of the judges gave Canelo the win. Some fans might argue that getting a decision win over popular fighters like Canelo in boxing is very, very difficult unless you’re extremely popular too.
Chavez Jr. can increase his chances of winning if he fights on the outside and uses movement like he did in his 12 round decision win over John Duddy in 2010. That was a fight that Chavez Jr. stayed on the outside and used his jab all night long. He didn’t crowd Duddy like he’d been doing with his opposition, and the results saw him winning a wide 12 round decision. Duddy had the better hand speed than Chavez Jr. and he looked more comfortable on the inside.
Chavez Jr. should avoid fighting Canelo in close, because he’s too easy to hit and he’ll likely get picked apart by him. Chavez Jr. has a three inch reach advantage over Canelo that he should be trying to use. It would be crazy for Chavez Jr. to give up his reach against a shorter fighter like Canelo, especially when it’s been established in the past that Canelo has problems with guys that use their reach to jab.