By Gerardo Granados: The former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has the tools to be competitive at the 168 pound division. He has the proper height and reach and a good build. He also has a great chin although lacks great power for the super middleweight division. His major asset is his name that can be easily market to the fight fans but he has been undisciplined and got reckless towards his boxing career.
Nonetheless, a friend of mine believes that Cesar Chavez Jr. will be able to become a great champion if he finally becomes a disciplined professional boxer.
He could become the first ever Mexican fighter to achieve a world championship at the super middleweight division and for sure he could land a shot at one of the major belts available. At 27 years of age he might have not matured in to a professional prize fighter yet. His last two years were quite disappointing, coming from a defeat where he had the wrong game plan to finally be suspended due have failed to pass drug test after the fight. And you can add that his comeback fight wasn’t a good performance at all.
How many prize fighters can be allowed to get so many chances to succeed and to be able to land a title shot with such ease? How many of them are able to earn a million dollar purse per fight? Maybe the question to ask is for how long will fight fans will keep on watching.
In the past I have been critical about him, but now I am confident that the lion has finally matured and learned from his mistakes so he will be able to shine just like his legendary father did for at least a couple of fights. He has many flaws on his game and his defense can be improved a lot, but he does has the heart of a fighter, he does posses the will to engage and to please the crowd; he is as brave as the best and many super middleweights champions would love to get a shot against a fighter that can bring them fame. His major problem could be that he does takes too much punishment and I don’t expect him to fight beyond the thirty years mark so he better make the best out of his profession before Kronos reaches him.
For a change I will support Chavez Jr. on his next fight against Bryan Vera, who might have the perfect fighting style to defeat him. I won’t blind myself I do see Chavez Jr. losing the fight if he does not prepares to box from the first ring bell to the last.
This is a make or break fight for Julio Cesar, he must win convincingly otherwise he could lose not only the fight but also the support from fight fans. Although in the past he has struggled to make weight I will trust that he will make the super middle division limit, because the penalty for not making weight is really big. And I am going to bet on him to win by decision even that I have him as the underdog for this bout.
Maybe my friend is very persuasive and I he managed to make me believe that this time things will be different. Perhaps Chavez Jr. is not different from other sons of great fighters and just as them he will never fill in his father status. It could be that we expect him to be as good as his father was and forget that he is a different person. I wonder if it is easy to be named Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
But what about you, do you believe Chavez Jr. will allow greatness slip thru his fingers?
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