By Dan Ambrose: Mikey Garcia believes that former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs) has a good chance of beating Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) on May 6 if he chooses to train hard for the fight. Mikey thinks that Canelo doesn’t use his size advantages in his fights the way he should. He says that Canelo tries to box instead of using his size.
For this fight, Canelo won’t have a size advantage. He’ll be facing a fighter that likely will outweigh him on the night of their fight on HBO PPV. We don’t know how much Canelo weighs for his fights because he stopped being weighed. If Canelo rehydrates into the 180s, then it’s possible that he and Chavez Jr. could be around the same weight for their catch-weight fight at 164.5lbs.
Garcia points out that Chavez Jr. was at his best in the past when he trained hard for his fights against Sebastian Zbik and Andy Lee. Chavez Jr. didn’t start to slack off until he fought Sergio Martinez in 2012. Chavez Jr’s interest in boxing seemed to really disappear by that fight, and in his fights since then.
Garcia said this to esnewreporting.com:
“It’ a very good fight for the fans,” said Mikey about the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight. “It’s not the fight the fans wanted to see Canelo in. If Chavez trains well like I hope he does, I think he has a very good chance. He’s a big guy, a strong guy. Canelo is a big dude anyway. He shrinks to get down to 154. I heard a couple of times he didn’t even make weight, and they had to make adjustments to 155 because he couldn’t do it. He’s a huge dude. 160-164, it’s the same deal. I think it’s a close fight. If Chavez doesn’t train and isn’t motivated and hungry, then Canelo has the advantage. I hope he does because I like Chavez. If he trains like he did against Sebastian Zbik and Andy Lee or any of his title defenses. If he can train like that and come hungry like that to fight Canelo, I give him a very good chance of winning. He can lose the fight, but that doesn’t mean he can’t put a fight. I don’t see Canelo outclassing Chavez. Canelo doesn’t really box that well. He uses a lot of pressure with his size advantage. When he fought Cotto, I thought he was going to destroy Cotto. He had the weight advantage, and the size advantage . A smaller guy can hurt Cotto. Small 140 pounders have hurt Cotto. 147 pounders have destroyed Cotto, and yet Canelo didn’t do anything. He didn’t use that to his advantage. He could beat Chavez, but that makes for a great fight. The best man will win, whether it’s Chavez or Canelo. If Chavez doesn’t train, then it could be a blowout. I think Canelo doesn’t use his advantages well enough. He was 20 pounds more on fight night, and he tried to box. I think he should have used his size advantage more, especially when you have an older, over-the-hill Cotto, who has been hurt and damaged by smaller guys. I think Canelo should have used that and made a statement by coming out and knocking him out. He didn’t. He played it safe. I thought it was a very close fight. I thought he should have done more,” said Garcia.
An in shape Chavez Jr. could definitely be a lot of problems for Canelo. The way that Canelo fights is a lot like how Andy Lee fought Chavez Jr. Lee tried to fight off the ropes, and he blasted out. Canelo could wind up being stopped in a similar manner.
If a motivated Chavez Jr. comes into the fight and is able to batter and stop Canelo, it would ruin a match between Canelo and Gennady Golovkin. Golden Boy Promotions would want to put Canelo back in with Chavez Jr. in an immediate rematch, which would make even more money. Chavez Jr. might have the natural game to beat Canelo with his inside fighting and body punching. You can argue that Chavez Jr. was a very similar fighter as Canelo in the past. Like Canelo, Chavez Jr. would dehydrate a great deal to make weight. Chavez Jr. would then rehydrate to have a big weight advantage over his opposition. The difference is that Chavez Jr. is a bigger version of Canelo, and he’s more fearless. Canelo hates being hit, and he’ll do anything he can to avoid it. Chavez Jr. is more fearless and willing to take shots in order to deliver his own.