Chavez Brothers: Is Omar The Better Prospect Than Julio?

By Boxing News - 02/12/2008 - Comments

By Chris Thomas: After watching last Saturday’s bouts of the two Chavez brothers, Omar Chavez (6-0, 5 KOs) and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., both sons of the famous Mexican boxing champion Julio Cesar Chavez, I’m ready to pronounce that the younger brother, 18 year-old Omar, is already the better fighter of the two sons. Although Chavez Jr. (35-0-1, 28 KOs), an unbeaten light middleweight, has received a huge amount of attention in the media due to his earlier start than this younger brother Omar, he has been less than impressive in his last two outings, wins over Ray Sanchez and most recently, an 8th round stoppage win over Jose Celaya last Saturday night.

However, as often has been the case in his fights, Julio’s workrate has been poor to say the least. He appeared to be waiting too long against Celaya, looking for an opening to with which to unload one of his trademark hooks to the body. Unfortunately for Chavez Jr., he he waited so long that he gave away many of the early rounds and was trailing the fight halfway through it. Although Chavez eventually was able to stop Celaya after he quit in the 8th when Chavez landed a right hand on Celaya’s badly swollen right eye, it was a bout that Chavez looked to be well on his way to losing. Not a good sign, considering that Celaya isn’t considered one of the top light middleweight’s in the division.

Chavez, for some reason, has shown next to no improvement since his last bout, a fight in which he struggled to beat Ray Sanchez in December 2007, a fight where Chavez was trailing at the time of the stoppage. At this point, if Chavez Jr. is matched up any with anyone tougher than someone like Celaya, I see him getting beaten. As it was, he was fortunate that he injured Celaya’s eye in the 2nd round, for if he hadn’t, Celaya would have continued to give him a boxing lesson in every round and would have cruised to a 12-round unanimous decision victory.

In contrast to his brother, Omar, a light welterweight, is four inches shorter, at 5’8″, and looks and fights more like his famous father. Although 14 lbs lighter and three years younger than Chavez Jr., Omar appears to be the harder puncher of the two brothers, with power in each hand. Even better than that, Omar has an excellent workrate, much like his father, as he punches at a constant pace rather than conserving his energy like Chavez Jr. Against Miguel Camacho last Saturday night, Omar hurt him with crushing body shots from the opening seconds of the bout.

Omar eventually stopped Camacho at 1:27 of the 1st round after landing a devastating left hook to his midsection. Camacho stayed down for a long time, and was sill in incredible pain minutes afterwards as he was propped up in his corner.



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