https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcfx-hVSPfA

By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (48-2-1, 32 KOs) will be taking his first step of what could be a long journey back to a world title this Saturday night when he faces Marcos Reyes (32-2, 24 KOs) in a 10 round bout on Showtime Championship Boxing from the Don Haskins Convention Center, in El Paso, Texas, USA.

Chavez Jr., 29, will be making his first fight under the guidance of well-known trainer Robert Garcia, and he sees him as being able to make him a world champion again. It’s been three years since Chavez Jr. lost his WBC middleweight crown against Sergio Martinez in 2012. He recently was with trainer Joe Goosen, who seemed to have some great ideas for improving Chavez Jr’s flawed fighting style. But after Chavez Jr. was beaten by Andrej Fonfara by 9th round knockout last April, Chavez Jr. bailed on Goosen and replaced him with Garcia.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Garcia’s head will likely be on the chopping block once Chavez Jr. gets beaten again in the near future, maybe even this Saturday if he gets beaten by Reyes. Chavez Jr. wasn’t supposed to lose to Fonfara, and he’s not supposed to lose to Reyes.

“He’s a young guy, he needs an opportunity, and he’s a good test for me,” Chavez Jr. said. “I want to be with Robert because I want to be world champion again.”

I don’t know if its physically possible for Chavez Jr. to become a world champion at 168 no matter who trains him. The only weight that Chavez Jr. was any good was when he fought at middleweight, and a large part of his success at that weight was due to him having a tremendous weight advantage over his opponents.

Chavez Jr. was as big as he is now in weighing over 180+, and then somehow melting down over 20 pounds and basically crushing his lighter opponents with his sheer size alone. But at super middleweight, all the fighters rehydrate to the 180s, so Chavez Jr. has no advantage over them in terms of size. So he’s basically just a guy that gets in close, gets tagged a lot, and struggles.

The strange part is Chavez Jr. still hasn’t even fought a super middleweight. Since his loss to Sergio Martinez, he’s twice beaten middleweight journeyman Brian Vera, and then fought light heavyweight Fonfara. Chavez Jr’s fight against Reyes is yet another fight against a middleweight. Chavez Jr. says he wants to fight at 168, yet he keeps fighting middleweights for some reason.

If he’s going to be facing middleweights for the remainder of his career in dragging them up to super middleweight, then Chavez Jr. is really wasting his time. If he wants to fight middleweights, then he needs to get a dietician and conditioning coach to help him get back down to 160. I would recommend someone like Angel Heredia or Alex Ariza to help Chavez Jr. melt off the weight. If Robert Garcia has problems with Chavez Jr. working with either of those guys, then Chavez Jr. needs to think seriously about getting a new trainer, because his best chance of success is at 160, not 168. Having Ariza and/or Heredia working with him would be a lot more important for Chavez Jr. in my view than who trains him. He’s kind of self-trained anyway.

“I believe Chaves is the guy to be that one star that is going to make boxing believe in my work,” Garcia said.