By Dan Ambrose: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (48-2-1, 32 KOs) received a nice payday of $2.5 million last night in getting stopped after the 9th round by Andrzej Fonfara (27-3, 16 KOs) at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
The money that the 29-year-old Chavez Jr. received pales in comparison to the $7 million that he would have received had he agreed to face WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin last year that would have taken place on July 19th. That’s $4.5 million that Chavez Jr. will never receive now.
I’m not sure that you can sell a Chavez Jr-Golovkin fight now unless Chavez Jr. were to rebuild his career by picking up three to four good victories over top super middleweight or light heavyweight contenders.
Given how badly Chavez Jr. performance last Saturday night against Fonfara, I have my doubts that he can beat any top names at 168 or 175, even if he were to continue with his catch-weight fights.
Chavez Jr. was reportedly taken to a nearby hospital last night as a precautionary measure following his stoppage loss. Chavez Jr. quit on his stool in between the 9th and 10th after he’d been knocked on his backside in the 9th. At the time that Chavez Jr. quit, he was behind on the scorecards by the scores of 89-80, 88-81, and 88-81. Unbelievably, Chavez Jr. said he thought he was ahead at the time of the stoppage.
“Per California commission, Chavez’s purse last night was $2.5M, Fonfara $400K. #boxing Chavez-Fonfara,” Dan Rafael said on his twitter.
Here’s what Chavez Jr. said while quitting on his stool after the 9th round:
“Stop it, I’m done. Stop the fight. Stop it. Stop it. I want it stopped. It’s my leg. My legs bothering me. Stop it.”
As you can see, Chavez Jr. appeared to be in some kind of dialogue with his trainer Joe Goosen. Perhaps that’s why Chavez Jr. kept saying over and over again to have the fight stopped rather than him just saying once.
“Maybe 170,172 pounds is too big for me, maybe I’ll go back down,” Chavez Jr. said after the fight. “I’m not sure what my future holds. It was a very tough fight. But I congratulate Andrzej.”
With his win over Chavez Jr, Fonfara captured the WBC International light heavyweight title.
This is what Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said about Chavez Jr. fighting Golovkin last year in an interview with RingTV.com:
“There is no update but the point is that I thought that we made a crazy, unbelievable offer to Chavez for the Golovkin fight. It called for the Golovkin fight to pay him a minimum $7 million, and if he lost that fight, we guaranteed him another fight for $5 million. Now if he beat Golovkin, then we would pay him a minimum for his next fight of $10 million.”
Wow! Chavez Jr. could have made $10 million for the fight against Golovkin if he had won the fight. Compare that to the $2.5 million that he made for the Fonfara fight. But against Golovkin, Chavez Jr. likely would have had a good 15 to 20 pound weight advantage over him.
It would have been a much different story than it was for the Fonfara fight where both guys entered the ring weighing about the same. Chavez Jr. wouldn’t have had to worry about getting hit a lot of speedy shots if he’d fought Golovkin because he’s not that fast of hand. He also doesn’t throw a ton of shots every round like Fonfara does.
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