By Dan Ambrose: For his third straight fight, former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (48-1-1, 32 KOs) is picking out a less than popula opponent when he returns to the ring on April 18th against light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara (26-3, 15 KOs) in their fight at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
In Chavez Jr’s last two fights, he fought middleweight journeyman Brian Vera in fights at light heavyweight in a catch-weight at 173 and at super middleweight. Those weren’t highly popular fights, and Chavez Jr fought well enough to deserve a loss in the first fight with Vera.
A lot of boxing fans think the first Chavez Jr-Vera fight was a flat out robbery with Chavez Jr being given a 10 round decision by the scores of 98-92, 96-94 and 97-93.
The fans that watched that fight live at the SubHub Center booed constantly, particularly when the final judges’ scores were announced with Chavez Jr getting the victory. It was a similar situation for Chavez Jr in his first fight against Matt Vanda in July 2008 and Carlos Molina in December 2005.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDGfl01bd7Y
Chavez Jr was booed badly in both of those fights in beating Vanda by a highly controversial decision and getting a controversial draw against Molina. I had Chavez Jr losing both of those fights, including his first fight against Vera. I think Chavez Jr’s real record should be 45-3, not 48-1. It obviously looks good that Chavez Jr has a 48-1 record, but I don’t see him as having beaten Vanda, Vera and Molina the first time around.
It’s asking a lot of boxing fans to want to purchase tickets for the Chavez Jr vs. Fonfara fight. I’d be surprised if the fight even sells out half of the StubHub center. The problem is Chavez Jr hasn’t fought in over a year since his fight against Vera in March of 2014, and he’s fighting a guy who doesn’t have a huge following in the Los Angeles area in Fonfara.
Maybe if the fight were staged in Chicago, Illinois, where Fonfara now lives, it might draw some boxing fans. But I don’t think Chavez Jr is popular enough right now to draw a lot of fans in the Los Angeles area.
Chavez Jr hasn’t fought a quality fighter since he was beaten by an aging Sergio Martinez in their fight in 2012. That was the first time in Chavez Jr’s career when he faced a quality opponent, and he was badly exposed by Martinez.
Chavez Jr only won one round in the fight in taking the 12th, and that was only because Martinez stopped moving and tried to fight him in a toe-to-toe manner.
Chavez Jr is going to need to step it up after he faces Fonfara in April, because boxing fans aren’t going to keep showing up to see Chavez Jr fight guys like Fonfara and Brian Vera. He needs to step it up against Carl Froch or preferably Gennady Golovkin. Chavez Jr recently trash talked Golovkin on twitter saying “without his power he’s not that good of a boxer. I’ll bet you GGG a million dollars of the purse that I’ll knock you out if we fight. Come to my weight class GGGboxing.”
When Chavez Jr tells Golovkin to come to his weight class, I assume he’s talking about the 172 pound weight class where Chavez Jr is the king. If Chavez Jr can drag Golovkin up to 172 like he did with Vera, and like he’s now doing with Fonfara, maybe Chavez Jr will have a chance of winning. I tend to doubt it though. I can’t see Chavez Jr being able to beat Golovkin even with a big weight advantage.
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