By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) will be facing middleweight Brian Vera (23-6, 14 KO’s) on September 7th next month at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
The fight will be staged at 168 as kind of experiment for the 27-year-old Chavez Jr. He says he wants to move back down to 160 lb. after this fight depending on how he feels, and go after WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in an attempt to avenge his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss last September.
However, if you’ve seen Chavez Jr. working out recently, you have noticed how huge he is, even now with just four weeks to go before the fight. I saw photos of Chavez Jr. this week working out, and he looks like he’s over 200 lbs. easy.
Chavez Jr’s obviously going to lose more weight as the fight gets closer, and he’ll likely drain down 20+ in dehydrating to get the last part of the weight off. But I don’t see Chavez Jr. is ever going to be able to make 160 again without putting his health in jeopardy.
If he insists on trying to make the fight after the Vera fight, then his promoter is going to have to recognize the likelihood that Chavez Jr. may end up missing the 160 mark for the first time.
Since he doesn’t have a title, the fight will likely go ahead, but I don’t see the point. Chavez Jr. is simply too big to be fighting in the 160 lb. division, and the WBC should have rehydration rules to keep fighters from rehydrating more than 12 pounds at the most.
It would be sad to see Chavez Jr. draining down to hit 160, and then rehydrating to the 190s to fight Marco Antonio Rubio a second time. But I think the chances are slim that Chavez Jr. will be able to make the 160 lb. division in the future, and if he tries to, he could end up hurting himself by draining too much weight in the process of trying to make a weight class that his body can no longer make.
Chavez Jr. should just fight at light heavyweight or cruiserweight, and he wouldn’t have to go through the ordeal of losing massive amounts of weight through dehydrating.
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