By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (48-1-1, 32 KOs) wasn’t too impressed with WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s 11th round knockout win over Martin Murray on Saturday night in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Chavez Jr says Golovkin wouldn’t be a good fighter if he didn’t have any power. Further, Chavez Jr says that he’s willing to bet Golovkin $1 million that he’ll KO the Kazakhstan fighter if he moves up to 168 to take the fight against him.
“Without his power he’s not that good of a boxer, I’ll bet you GGG a million dollar of the purse that I’ll knock you out if we fight,” Chavez Jr said on his Social media site. “Come to my weight class @GGGBoxing, 168 or 170. But first, I need to beat Andrzej Fonfara and [he] is bigger and stronger [than Golovkin,” Chavez Jr said.
There’s no question that the 6’2”Fonfara (26-3, 15 KOs) is bigger than the 5’10” Golovkin, but I don’t think Fonfara has better power than Golovkin. But Fonfara is not even close to being as good as Golovkin. Fonfara is the same guy who struggled badly against Gabriel Campillo and a 40+ Glen Johnson.
Fonfara looked terrible against both fighters. Fonfara was also recently beaten by WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson. It’s actually a huge insult to Golovkin that Chavez Jr is saying that Fonfara is stronger than him, because if you look at Fonfara’s knockout percentage, it’s not nearly as high as Golovkin’s .
Golovkin will be back in the ring on May 16th against an opponent still to be determined. Chavez Jr isn’t available to fight on that date, because he has a fight against Fonfara on April 18th. There’s a possibility that fight might not take place though, because Chavez Jr’s former promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank is saying that he’s still under contract for one more fight.
If Arum is able to stop the Chavez Jr-Fonfara fight legally, then it’s going to put Chavez Jr in a situation where he’ll need to get that fight out of the way with Arum. I doubt Chavez Jr will want to take the fight with Golovkin. Chavez Jr is name dropping now in what appears to be an attempt to get attention during Golovkin’s moment in the spotlight.
Chavez Jr and Golovkin have sparred together in the past, and Chavez Jr really got worked over during the session. The video is on YouTube.
Golovkin and Chavez Jr were in negotiations to fight each other last year, but Chavez Jr pulled out of the negotiations.
I think Golovkin would take a fight against Chavez Jr in a second if the fight were really offered to him, but it’s unlikely that Chavez Jr is serious about wanting to fight him.
Chavez Jr is looking to fight WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch in the summer, if Chavez Jr doesn’t lose to Fonfara first. Froch is expected to beat Chavez Jr. Once that happens, you can forget about a Chavez Jr vs. Golovkin fight, because there won’t be any point in that fight taking place.
Chavez Jr is still the same fighter that was schooled by a past his prime Sergio Martinez three years ago in 2012. Since that fight, Chavez Jr has struggled to beat middleweight journeyman Brian Vera in two fights.
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