By Dan Ambrose: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez made their grand arrivals on Tuesday afternoon at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada for their fight this Saturday night on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both fighters were brief with their comments to the boxing media. Mostly, Canelo and Chavez Jr. posed for pictures and signed autographs. The fans were constantly screaming, “Canelo” and “Chavez” to try and get them to come over and sign autographs or post for photos for them.
Chavez Jr. said he’s going to beat Canelo like Floyd Mayweather Jr. did in 2013. That was an interesting comment from Chavez Jr., because it suggests that he might choose to box Canelo like Mayweather Jr. did instead of slug with him. That would be a smart thing for Chavez Jr. to do, because he’s got a significant height and reach advantage over Canelo. Why not use his reach to jab Canelo all night long the way that Mayweather and Erislandy Lara both did against him They BOTH beat Canelo, but Lara lost a HIGHLY controversial decision to him in 2014? Canelo was satisfied to live with his questionable win, which didn’t help his popularity much with the hardcore boxing fans.
“I’m very well prepared physically,” said Chavez Jr. during Tuesday afternoon’s grand arrivals at the MGM Grand Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. “Mayweather beat him before. We can too. It’s going to be a great fight, and a war out there,” said Chavez Jr. about his fight with Canelo.
Chavez Jr. would be making a smart move if he decides to use the Mayweather and Lara blueprint to beat Canelo, because he’s got short arms and he’s only 5’8”. Canelo’s bread and butter punch is his left hook.
Canelo looks to throw hooks. He’s not a good fighter from the outside, as we saw with him getting dominated by Lara and Mayweather from the outside. Chavez Jr. can do a number on Canelo if he stays at range and jabs him all night long like we saw him do against John Duddy and Peter Manfredo Jr. in the past. Chavez Jr. has excellent boxing skills when he wants to use them.
Chavez Jr. went away from using his jab after those 2 fights for some reason. Chavez Jr. wanted to fight like his famous father Julio Cesar Chavez by brawling on the inside and throwing hooks and a lot of shots. Chavez Jr. would give up his height and reach and put his chin out there to be hit. It’s too bad Chavez Jr. didn’t continue to jab and use his boxing skills after the Manfredo Jr. fight.
For Chavez Jr. to be able to use his jab to beat Canelo, he’s going to need to snap it out there with some speed. Chavez Jr. was throwing slow jabs against Duddy and Manfedo Jr., and they were countering him at times with straight rights. Chavez Jr. will need to put some speed on his jab and throw it with authority for him to get away with not being countered by Canelo. Amir Khan was knocked out by Canelo when he throws a slow jab that he countered with a right hand. Chavez Jr. may be forced to brawl with Canelo whether he wants to or not if his jab isn’t quick enough for him to keep from getting countered.
“Whenever you have two Mexican fighters, that’s a guarantee,” said Canelo on Tuesday during his grand arrival at the MGM Grand. “Now you have two of them fighting each other, obviously that’s a guarantee of a great fight and a great war,” said Canelo.
We’ll see if the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight is a great fight on Saturday. We’ve seen some less than competitive fights involving Canelo in recent years with him being put in mismatches against Alfredo Angulo, James Kirkland and Amir Khan. Those were not great fights to watch. Just because Canelo is fighting Chavez Jr. in a grudge match doesn’t mean that the fight is going to be a great one. If it is a great fight, then it’s a plus for the boxing public, because they will have spent their money well. The fans want to see Canelo stop ducking Gennady Golovkin and take that fight. Hopefully, that’ll be the next fight for Canelo.
This Saturday’s Carnlo vs. Chavez Jr. fight has a start time of 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.
Where to see Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight: T-Mobile Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Where to watch: HBO pay-per-view.
The co-feature bout on the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight card is former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (37-3, 33 KOs) fighting 2nd tier fighter Marco “Dorado” Reyes (35-4, 26 KOs) in a mismatch that many boxing fans see as a showcase fight for Lemieux. The Lemieux-Reyes fight is scheduled for 10 rounds. It’ll be lucky if it last 2 rounds. Reyes was recently knocked out by Elvin Ayala (29-9-1, 13 KOs) and beaten by Chavez Jr. It’s unknown why Golden Boy isn’t having Lemieux fight someone good. After all, this fight is the co-feature bout on HBO PPV.
Normally the co-feature fights on expensive PPV cards have competitive matches involving 2 fairly evenly matched fighters. The fact that Lemieux is being matched up against Reyes, who was knocked out in 7 rounds by journeyman Elvin Ayala last November, it looks like they’re asking the boxing public to pay for a mismatch. If the main event fight between Canelo and Chavez Jr. fight turns out to be a mismatch too, then the only slightly good fight on the entire card will be the Lucas Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs) vs. Emanuel Taylor (20-4, 14 KOs) fight.
Even that’s not a great fight. The only reason it’s a decent match-up, because Matthysse hasn’t fought in 1 ½ years, and he’s never fought at welterweight. If not for that, Matthysse-Taylor would be a mismatch too. Taylor, 26, is coming into the fight on Saturday with 2 losses in his last 4 fights, and his career is not looking so great right now. Taylor is a good tune-up fight for Matthysse, but this isn’t a great fight for PPV though. Sadly, it might be the best fight on the card unless Chavez Jr. and Reyes can raise their game to make their respective fights competitive.
The Matthysse-Taylor fight is scheduled for 10 rounds. Taylor has a pretty good chin, so he might make it the distance without getting knocked out. I still think Matthysse will knock him out if he has anything left in the tank at 34. They say punching power is the last thing to go, so Matthysse should still be very dangerous at his age. What we don’t know is whether his power will carry up to welterweight.
Matthysse has been fighting at 140 his entire boxing career. His punching power might not be nearly as formidable at 147 as it was when he fought at 140. We’ll see on Saturday night. I still suspect that the Matthysse-Taylor fight will be the most competitive fight on the entire card. At least this fight will give the boxing fans their money’s worth
Undefeated featherweight contender Joseph “JoJo” Diaz, Jr (23-0, 13 KOs) fights Manuel “Tino” Avila (22-0, 8 KOs) in a 10 round bout. I think this fight won’t go the distance. Diaz Jr. has too much power and talent for someone like Avila to hang around the entire fight.
