https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mKrrSAof2g

By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (48-2-1, 32 KOs) will be fighting Marcos Reyes (33-2, 24 KOs) this Saturday in what he hopes will be an impressive performance on Showtime. Chavez Jr. wants to capture another world title, and he’s hoping that he can accomplish in the near future. The 29-year-old Chavez Jr. has a new trainer in Robert Garcia, and he reportedly is training a lot harder than he has for his past fights.

Reyes, 27, thinks Chavez Jr. is wasting his time trying to copy his famous father Julio Cesar Chavez Sr’s fighting style. Reyes sees some talent there with Chavez Jr., but he fails to take advantage of his talent by his bad habit of trying to copy his father.

At this point in Chavez Jr’s career, he probably can’t change his fighting style even if he wants to. He’s been coping his father for so long that it’s going to be very difficult to fight with a different style. In his last fight against Andrzej Fonfara, Chavez Jr. was still trying to fight like his dad, and he took a beating because of it.

“He’s a great fighter. He doesn’t need to imitate Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., but he’s always trying to do it,” Reyes said. “He has skills, but as a boxer he keeps making the same mistakes imitating his dad. And that’s why he hasn’t done what he’s capable of in boxing.”

Reyes is doing Chavez Jr. a big favor by pointing out to him the mistakes he’s making with his career by trying to copy his father’s fighting style. But it’s doubtful that Chavez Jr. will listen to Reyes. Chavez Jr. found success with the way that he fought in the past when he was at middleweight, and for that reason he probably thinks he can find success again in the future if he only trains harder. I don’t think it’s going to work like that.

At middleweight, Chavez Jr. was able to do well by mimicking his father because he was so much heavier than his opponents. It also helped that Chavez Jr. only fought two good fighters during his time in that weight class in his fights against Sergio Martinez and Andy Lee.

The rest of the guys Chavez Jr. fought were mediocre fighters. But now that Chavez Jr. is fighting at super middleweight and no longer has a weight advantage over his opponents, he’s not going to be able to fight like his father. If he tries to be a body puncher against the top super middleweights, then they’re going to give him a real pounding.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen Saturday. They only thing I can tell you is that I’m ready to win and I will win on Saturday,” Reyes said.