By Eric Baldwin: Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. is pretty excited about a potential record-breaking fight between his son former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs) and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs). The negotiations are going on for a fight between the two Mexican stars on May 6 at a still determined location in the United States. The weight for the fight will be at catchweight of 165 pounds.
Chavez sees the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight as one that will break attendance records. For that to happen, it will need to take place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. There aren’t any other larger venues than that for the fight to take place in the U.S.
Unless they want to have the fight take place in Mexico City, Mexico, the large 80,000 seat AT&T Stadium is the best bet.
Chavez Sr. said this lapensa-sandiego.org about a fight between Chavez Jr. and Canelo breaking attendance records on May 6:
“I’m sure that the fight between my son and ‘Canelo’ would break attendance records,” said Chavez. “No doubt they would sell more than 70,000 tickets to see them fight. Fortunately my son has resumed his career with seriousness and discipline, and I believe his fight against Canelo will be a hit and it will generate among the people,” said Chavez.
It’s almost a sure thing that a fight between Canelo and Chavez Jr. will bring in more than 70,000 boxing fans to see this big fight. Canelo’s last match against former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam “Beefy” Smith brought in over 51,000 fans on September 17 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. That was a fight involving Canelo fighting a little known opponent.
The casual boxing fans in the U.S don’t know who Liam Smith was, and yet they were still willing to pay to see Canelo fight the little known champion in high numbers. That’s a big deal. With Canelo fighting Chavez Jr, who well known in Texas and elsewhere in the U.S, the fight should easily bring in a crowd of 70K+ fans on May 6.
An offer of $6 million has been made to Chavez Jr. from Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions. They’re just waiting to hear what the response will be from the 30-year-old Chavez Jr. There’s a reported deadline of this week for him to agree or reject the fight. If Chavez Jr. turns down the fight with Canelo, then Golden Boy plans on contacting WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) to have him as the Plan-B option.
“It is a fight that is being negotiated,” said Chavez about the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight. “The talks are very advanced and I think that to be exact, it will be a great fight,” said Chavez.
It might not be a great fight between Canelo and Chavez Jr. as far as it being a competitive match-up, but it will be a good one to attract a lot of attention in the boxing world. The fight should have been made five years ago in 2011, when Chavez Jr. was in his mid-20s, and the World Boxing Council middleweight champion. Chavez Jr. was at his best in 2011.
Canelo would have had a tough fight on his hands if he had fought the 6-foot Chavez Jr. back in 2011. That was before Canelo had done big things. It was before he fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013. Golden Boy probably wouldn’t have been willing to risk Canelo against the bigger Chavez Jr. in the best years of his career, because he was too big for the 5’9” Canelo back then. That was before Canelo filled out to his current weight, whatever that is. Canelo and Golden Boy aren’t revealing how much he weighs at this point in his career by having him weighed by HBO on the night of his fights.
Chavez Jr. will start training camp in early February for the Canelo fight if the fight gets made. Saunders is going to be ready to step in to fight Canelo if there’s no agreement between Chavez Jr. and him. Saunders successfully defended his WBO title this month in beating Russian Artur Akavov. It was not Saunders at his best. In fact, it was perhaps the worst performance of Saunders’ career. He said he had put on weight in the year that he was out of the ring, and he had a hard time taking off all the weight. The weight came off, but Saunders wasn’t the same fighter he’d been in his previous fight against Andy Lee last year in December.
Canelo has given Saunders a secondary position behind Chavez Jr. in who he wants to fight on Cinco de Mayo on May 6. The money that Canelo can make fighting Saunders is likely nothing compared to all the PPV money the red-headed Mexican star can make against Chavez Jr. on the same date. Canelo would like to fight Saunders, but only because he’s the WBO middleweight champion. Canelo wants his WBO title.
To get that title will help Canelo get the best deal possible against middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin for their fight in September 2017. Canelo has a choice: take the big payday against Chavez Jr. or take the smaller payday against Saunders to take his WBO title off of him. Canelo has decided to go for the bigger money fight against Chavez Jr., which makes all the sense win the world. Chavez Jr. could lose to someone in the near future if Canelo were to turn down a fight against him.
Once Chavez Jr. gets beaten by someone again, a fight against him won’t be nearly as big as it is now for Canelo. Chavez Jr. was knocked out in the 9th round in 2015 by Andrzej Fonfara. Chavez Jr. has won his last two fights against Marcos Reyes and Dominic British. A lot of boxing fans still remember Chavez Jr. quitting against Fonfara last year, and that’s hurt his popularity in a big way. Chavez Jr’s infrequent fights have also hurt his popularity. He’s only been in the ring five times since his loss to Sergio Martinez in 2012.
It’s a good thing for Canelo that Chavez Jr. returned from his hand injury recently. Chavez Jr. had been out of action for close to two years with his left hand problem. It was lucky fate for Canelo and Golden Boy that Chavez Jr. finally rehabilitated his hand problem to resume his career. Chavez Jr. beat Dominik Britsch by a 10 round unanimous decision on December 10. This was the first time that Chavez Jr. made weight for the super middleweight for two years since 2014. That’s a long time. It was a good sign that Chavez Jr. was able to take off enough weight to make the 168lb weight limit for the fight against the German fighter.
Canelo will be a huge favorite for the Chavez Jr. fight despite being the smaller fighter. Canelo has in the prime of his career at this point. He might not be the best fighter in the 160lb division, but he’s likely a much better fighter than Chavez.
Chavez Jr. can punch with a lot of power, and he’s a very good body puncher. However, he’s going to need to open himself up to the big shots from Canelo for him to get the ‘W’ on May 6. Chavez Jr’s used to be one of the best assets he had going for him. But with his long periods of inactivity between each fight, it may have reduced his punch resistance. Chavez Jr. was taken out by Fonfara with power shots that he might have been able to take had the fight taken place years ago.