Chavez Jr: Canelo is mad because I tell him he’s ducking GGG

By Boxing News - 03/22/2017 - Comments

Image: Chavez Jr: Canelo is mad because I tell him he’s ducking GGG

By Dan Ambrose: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has recently been enjoying kicking sand in the face of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez by telling the boxing media that he’s ducking a fight against middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Chavez Jr. says that Canelo is mad at him because he keeps telling the fans that he’s avoiding Golovkin. Chavez Jr. says it’s not his opinion that Canelo is ducking Golovkin. It’s the opinion of everyone that Canelo doesn’t want to fight Triple G.

Chavez Jr. and Canelo will be fighting each other on May 6 on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both fighters are talking a lot with the media to drum up interest in their important clash in less than 2 months from now. Chavez Jr. keeps getting asked about the Canelo-Golovkin fight, and whether he’ll face Golovkin. Chavez Jr. has seemingly enjoyed pointing out that Canelo been ducking Golovkin for some time now Chavez Jr. says he’ll face Golovkin after he beats Canelo. He says he won’t duck him because that’s not the type of fighter he is.

“Canelo, he’s mad because I tell him he’s ducking Triple G,” said Chavez Jr. “I know and everyone else knows the same thing. Some people don’t like you to tell the truth,” said Chavez Jr.

If Canelo beats Chavez Jr. on May 6, he’ll have the chance to face Triple G in September. But as Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez said recently, there are many ways to avoid a fight. One of the ways is to make a small money offer to your opponent. You can argue that the flat fee offer by Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions to Golovkin is one way to avoid taking the fight with him.

“I think it will make for a good fight,” said Chavez Jr. about his fight against Canelo. “I’m moving down [in weight] and he’s moving up. I think this fight will be remembered for a while. He’s usually around 180, so his loss will be a little less, and he won’t have to struggle. As for myself, I’ll have to make a little bit of sacrifice, but I think it’s fair. It’s even fight. The best will win,” said Chavez Jr.

Canelo-Chavez Jr. will be fighting at a catch-weight of 164 ½ lbs. That’s the catch-weight that Golden Boy and Canelo wanted for the fight. Chavez Jr. agreed to it because he had little choice. If he turned it down, he likely wouldn’t have gotten the fight. There’s an expensive $1 million per pound weight penalty for the fight. If one of the two fighters come in over the 164.5 lb. weigh-in limit, it could become costly for them.

Chavez Jr. says he’s 180 right now, and he believes that Canelo is at the same weight. But he thinks it’ll be easier for Canelo to make the weight than for him. One reason for that is because Chavez Jr. has already lost weight to get down to 180. The pounds tend to come off easily at first. It’s when you start dropping more weight where it becomes tougher. However, Chavez Jr. likely won’t lose too much more weight. He’s 15.5 lbs. away from the 164.5 lb. limit right now, and he could likely easily dehydrate that amount to make the weigh-in limit if the fight were to take place on Saturday instead of May 6. Chavez Jr. has lots of time to lose the weight.

“I’m ready,” said Chavez Jr. in response to a question of whether he’ll face Gennady Golovkin after Canelo. “I never ducked anybody. Canelo is mad because I said he ducked Triple G. It’s not my opinion. It’s the opinion of everybody else,” said Chavez Jr.

If Chavez Jr. beats Canelo, he will almost surely fight him in an immediate rematch rather than moving forward to face Golovkin. Golden Boy can’t let Chavez Jr. beat Canelo and move on without trying to avenge the loss. It would be a really bad defeat for Canelo, because Chavez Jr. has not done anything with his boxing career for many years, which is probably the main reason why he was picked out by Golden Boy to face Canelo. They weren’t in a hurry to math Canelo against Chavez Jr. 5 years ago when Chavez Jr. was still the WBC middleweight champion.

“I see myself winning,” said Chavez Jr. about the Canelo fight. “All fights are tough. I will give everything to it, everything that I have learned and everything that has happened in my life, I’ll put it all to use to win. I don’t know if he’s underestimating me. I think he sees me as an easy fight. Of course [I’ll fight Golovkin]. They’re criticizing me for one thing or another and this is one way for me to prove them wrong. He knows me well. It’s up to me to be disciplined and to give my best. To all the people in boxing, I think it’s a fight the people want to see. I’m making a little sacrifice in making weight, but the fight is for all the people, all the Latinos and all those who have supported us,” said Chavez Jr.

Chavez Jr. is going to need to jump on Canelo and throw a lot of heavy shots if he wants to beat him on May 6. Chavez Jr. cannot let Canelo stand on the otside and box him, because he won’t win a fight like that. Canelo will use his speed and jab to get the better of him if he lets him stay on the outside.