By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (43-0-1, 30 KO’s) will be going it alone for the most part after his trainer Alex Ariza reportedly refused to travel to Mexico to train Chavez Jr. for his September 17th fight against fringe contender Ronald Hearns (26-2, 20 KO’s) at the Palenque, Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Chavez Jr. was supposed to travel to Los Angeles, California to train with Ariza, but changed his mind and decided to train in Mexico instead. Ariza doesn’t want to go to Mexico to train Chavez Jr., and has told him if he wants to train he’s going to have to come to Los Angeles. As such, Chavez Jr. will be without both Ariza and trainer Freddie Roach in getting ready for the Hearns fight.

In truth, Chavez Jr. probably doesn’t need either Ariza or Roach to beat a guy like Hearns. Chavez wins this fight on size alone, especially if he comes out there weighing a huge 180 pounds the night of the fight. The skinny Hearns won’t be able to deal with a light heavyweight-sized Chavez Jr. and will get broken down fairly quickly.

Top Rank and Roach are both against Chavez Jr. taking the Hearns fight because Roach doesn’t have time to train him because of his commitment to Manny Pacquiao, who is training for his November fight against Juan Manuel Marquez. Chavez Jr. has a fight scheduled already against Peter Manfredo Jr. on November 19th, and that’s the fight that Roach and Top Rank don’t want Chavez Jr. to blow by suffering any potential injuries during the Hearns bout. Roach has time to train Chavez Jr. for that fight but not the Hearns bout.

But in fairness to Chavez, he knows himself pretty well and likely is aware how much of an affect Ariza and Roach have on him during his training camp. I don’t think he’s worried too much about the lack of a coach because he’s got his famous father Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and plenty of other guys that can help him get ready for the Hearns fight.

I think he’s doing the right thing by taking the Hearns fight because Chavez Jr. needs as many fights as possible to get more experience and to keep improving as a fighter. He can’t be just sitting waiting on Roach and slowing his own career down. If nothing else, Chavez Jr. needs to milk his WBC title as much as possible because he likely won’t have it too much longer. Someone is going to beat him when he eventually is forced to step it up against a fighter like Marco Antonio Rubio or Sergio Martinez. While I think Ariza and Roach are good trainers, I think they’re other guys just as good if not better than both of them. Chavez Jr. doesn’t need them to succeed against Hearns. If Roach was as great as a lot of people think he is how come Chavez Jr. looked so mediocre against Sebastian Zbik? That was Roach who trained Chavez Jr. for that fight and he still looked bad.