By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez says he’s not impressed with the new physical conditioning of his opponent Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who is looking very trim and in top shape for their fight on May 6h at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo (48-1-1, 34 KOs) says it’s nothing special the way Chavez Jr. looks. He’s merely in shape the way fighters are supposed to be when they’re competing. Canelo says the only thing that would surprise him is if Chavez Jr. was weighing over 300 pounds.
That would surprise him. Other than that, Canelo says he’s not surprised the way Chavez Jr. is looking right now ahead of their fight on HBO PPV.
“It’s normal to me. Nothing different, nothing new,” said Canelo to Fighthub.com about Chavez Jr’s new trimmed down physique. “This is the way an athlete should be training and looking at this caliber of a fight. It’s nothing special. It’s not surprising. It’s normal to me. I’d be surprised if I saw a photo of him weighing 300 pounds. That would be something different that would surprise me and shock me, because that photo is normal to me,” said Canelo.
If Chavez Jr. is able to fight at a really high level in their contest on May 6, then it could come back to bite Canelo on the backside his decision to fight him. It’s thought that Golden Boy Promotions’ decision to make the fight at 164.5 pounds will be enough to weaken Chavez Jr. to the point where he has virtually no chance of winning. Whatever small chance Chavez Jr. had in winning the fight would be destroyed by him being weakened in getting down to the 164 ½ pound catch-weight.
However, the photos of Chavez Jr. looking the leanest he’s appeared in years, it suggests that he’s going to be able to make the catch-weight limit without it weakening him. That means Canelo won’t have a half drained opponent on his hands when he enters the ring on May 6. Canelo also won’t have his normal weight advantage. Canelo is normally heavier than his opponents. That might not be the case when he faces Chavez Jr. If Canelo does have a weight advantage, it’ll be a small one.
Canelo seems pretty confident about the Chavez Jr. fight. He’s obviously sized up the 30-year-old Chavez Jr. and has concluded that he can win this fight. Like with all of his fight, Canelo had the final say so in Chavez Jr. being his opponent. If Canelo didn’t want Chavez Jr. as his opponent, then he wouldn’t be facing him on May 6. Chavez Jr. would be where Gennady Golovkin is now, a fighter that waits and hopes to fight the redheaded Mexican star one of these days. Canelo saw something in Chavez Jr’s game that made him want to fight him rather than Golovkin and other fighters like Daniel Jacobs, Demetrius Andrade and Jermall Charlo.
Once a quitter always a quitter, says Bernard Hopkins about Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Bernard Hopkins says Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. gave Saul Canelo Alvarez a huge gift in calling off their bet for their fight on May 6. The two Mexican stars had made a bet of their purses for the fight. Whoever won the fight was supposed to get the other fighter’s purse. Hopkins says Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. called off the bet. Hopkins thinks that was a big mistake for him to do so, because it’ll give Canelo even more confidence now.
“When things get hard, I believe in my heart, ‘Once a quitter always a quitter,” said Hopkins to Thaboxingvoice.com in taking a jab at Chavez Jr. in likely reference to him quitting in his fight against Andrzej Fonfara in 2015.
Chavez Jr. quit after being knocked down in the 9th round in his fight against light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara in 2015. Chavez Jr. reportedly hadn’t trained for that fight, and he wasn’t competitive in the fight. Fonfara was teeing off on him the entire fight. You can’t blame Chavez Jr. for knowing when to quit. He didn’t look mentally there for that fight. Even if Chavez Jr. had continued to fight, he would have just soaked up punishment and likely been stopped. It was smart for Chavez Jr. to know when to quit.
“Fortunately, he doesn’t have to worry about that with Chavez Jr. or Triple G,” said Hopkins about Canelo having problems with guys that move well around the ring.
Golovkin doesn’t have slow feet when it comes to cutting off the ring on an opponent. He was able to cut off the ring on Daniel Jacobs and jab his way to a 12 round decision win. If Golovkin had slow feet, he would have never been able to do that. Jacobs has faster feet than Canelo. Golovkin will have no problems cutting off the ring on Canelo if he decides to try and elude him in their fight.
“They called that off,” said Hopkins about the Chavez Jr. purse bet that he had with Canelo. “The word got back to daddy. You know who daddy is; Senior, right? And Senior said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Listen, do you want to lose now or do you want to lose on May 6?’ Off bet. I would have never called the bet off, because now what you give Canelo [is a boost of confidence]. When you make moves like that, that’s leverage, big time. Why give a guy like Canelo another reason to be confident?” said Hopkins.
It was a dumb idea for Canelo and Chavez Jr. to bet their purses in the first place. It was obvious that it was going to be called off. If Chavez Jr. hadn’t done it, I suspect Canelo would have done it. No one is going to bet millions on a fight that could go either way. With the way judges are, you never know which way they’re going to decide a fight. We see too many controversial decisions for a fighter to bet millions on a fight. That would be foolhardy. Canelo did not look good enough in his recent win over Liam Smith for him to assume that he can bet millions in a fight with Chavez Jr