Roach: We [Chavez Jr] didn’t work hard enough

By Boxing News - 09/16/2012 - Comments

Image: Roach: We [Chavez Jr] didn't work hard enoughBy Chris Williams: Freddie Roach was disappointed to see yet another one of his fighters lose recently with former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) tasting defeat for the first time last Saturday night at the hands of Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s).

In watching the Chavez Jr-Martinez 24/7 episodes on HBO it’s really not surprising that Chavez Jr. was so ill prepared for the fight because his training camp looked like one of the worst disorganized camps I’ve ever seen before. Chavez Jr. spent a lot of time working out at home rather than in the gym with Roach, and you just knew that he was going to have problems trying to figure out how to dissect Martinez’s fighting style.

Roach said to Yahoo Sports News “Overall, we didn’t work hard enough for this fight. Living rooms are overrated. Boxing gyms are there for a reason I’ll work with him again. First day he misses the boxing gym, I’ll go home.

I wonder what Roach means by saying he’ll “Go home.” Does he mean he’ll walk out of training camp and no longer train Chavez Jr? Somehow I feel Roach merely means he’ll go home for the fight and then be back the next night when Chavez Jr. is next scheduled. Roach didn’t look like he was in command of the training camp. Chavez Jr. seemed like he was the one dictating what would happen and when. And Roach looked like little more than a water guy in between rounds last Saturday with Chavez Jr. receiving instructions from his father Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. being relied to him by one of his team members. It made it look like Roach really wasn’t in charge of the situation.

Chavez Jr. ended up getting badly schooled by Martinez, and it. Chavez Jr. literally won only one minute of the entire 36 minute fight and that was in the 12th round when Chavez Jr. hurt Martinez in the last minute.

There will probably be a rematch between Chavez Jr. and Martinez now, because already Martinez’s promoter Lou Dibella and Chavez Jr’s promoter Bob Arum are talking about rematch that could take place at the Cowboys Stadium in Texas in early 2013.



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