By Jim Dower: After staying patient after being jobbed in a very controversial 12-round draw last weekend with challenger Rocky Juarez (28-4-1, 20 KOs), WBA featherweight champion Chris John (42-0-2, 22 KOs) is reportedly interested in giving Juarez a rematch, as long as the fight isn’t in Texas, where their fight took place last weekend and which just so happens to be the hometown of the 28-year-old Juarez.
It’s unclear which fight the judges were watching, because I had John easily winning the fight by a lopsided margin of 10 rounds to 2 for Juarez. John totally dominated the first 10 rounds, appearing to easily win all of them with his faster hands, better jab, and much better movement.
Juarez hardly threw anything until the 11th and 12th rounds, when he finally came alive and landed some decent shots. Even in those rounds, however, he was out-landed by John by a significant margin. Although I can understand John wanting to fight Juarez to clear up the controversial nature of the fight draw, John might be better off looking in another direction rather than wasting time going over old ground.
Most people who watched the fight already know that John should have been given the decision and he doesn’t need to fight Juarez again to somehow get validated by anyone. If the fight does take place, John wants it to be in either Las Vegas or Los Angeles, and not in Texas.
Juarez took a literal pounding in the fight, both eyes badly swelled, cut and his face reddened and swollen. The problem is, he already looked like that by the 6th round and was never really in the fight, despite the crazy scores by the judges’ at the end of the fight.
If John is paid well in another fight with Juarez, then it may be worthwhile for him to take the fight, but for me, he seems much better off going after someone good like Oscar Larios, Steven Luevano or Mario Santiago. All of those fights would be a guaranteed blockbuster and likely much more competitive than another one-sided slaughter of Juarez again.
Frankly, I wouldn’t want to see John beat Juarez up again because it was a hopelessly lopsided fight, almost as bad as John’s supposed win over Juan Manuel Marquez in 2006. If John is interested in generating excitement in the U.S. and picking up new boxing fans, he needs to go after a bigger name than Juarez.