Chavez Jr. beaten by Martinez: Where do they go from here?

By Boxing News - 09/17/2012 - Comments

Image: Chavez Jr. beaten by Martinez: Where do they go from here?by Jordan Capobianco: We all saw what happened on Saturday night. We all witnessed it. Remember the fight. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. taking seemingly endless punches to an already broken face, trying to pin Sergio Martinez to the ropes to work the body. Remember Sergio Martinez turning his side to Chavez Jr., rolling with him for a moment, and spinning free, taking barely any shots and none that weren’t returned.

The accidental headbutt. The low blows that Martinez apologized for. The taunting by both fighters. The frenzy of the crowd in the twelfth round when Chavez Jr. managed to knock his man down, and how Martinez miraculously made it to the end of the fight, as though Meldrick Taylor himself were pushing him onward to victory. And remember the imbalance on the scorecards, and how close it wasn’t despite the knockdown. And remember how Chavez Jr.’s broken face appeared in the post-fight press conference, and how Martinez is in the hospital with a problem in his knee that is of unknown future detriment.

And forget the fanboys and the nonsense and the ignorant Chavez Jr. fans who know nothing about boxing and the elitist Martinez fans who just can’t seem to understand that Martinez fights like a coward. It doesn’t matter which side you’re on. Just remember the fight.

Now think about where those 2 fighters go from here.

For Martinez, it seems the world is his oyster. He is the supreme champion at Middleweight, he is the man who reclaimed a title stripped away from him. He is the man who broke Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.’s “0”. But he paid a price for it. His knee is now a problem of unknown severity. He likely doesn’t have that long left in boxing to defend his championship, considering his age, and it’s questionable as to whether he’ll ever really get the respect he deserves and earned. No doubt Saturday night helped, but there have already been reports of networks and sports journalists continuing to shower favor on Chavez Jr.. Very few lose their belt in that fashion and are immediately expected to be granted a rematch with the man who beat them.

And for Chavez Jr.? He is in the doldrums at the moment, or he should be. He should be questioning his career, questioning whether he deserves his inflated status, questioning where he goes from here. They do say that it’s the darkest before the sun rises.

But there is an opportunity. Chavez Jr. could use the loss to realize that he needs to become his own man. His own fighter. He could use the loss to realize that he’s fighting in his father’s weight class, which is clearly not his own. The man looks like a victim of famine when he shows up for the weigh-in these days. More importantly, he could use the loss to realize that it’s important to show up to training every day. He could use the loss to gain discipline. If he would do that, he might find that he doesn’t need the fabricated respect he’s received, based on nonsense and his father’s name and beating up on guys so clearly smaller than him . He might find that he earns genuine respect, not only within Mexico, but around the world. He might find that he has the talent to beat guys who are his size, or even bigger than him.

Or maybe not. It’s just a thought exercise.

But Rudyard Kipling said to treat success and failure as the twin imposters that they are. And I do enjoy playing devil’s advocate.



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