By Dan Ambrose: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr has been suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission, Arizona Boxing, and MMA Commission after he chose not to take a drug test last December before his match against Danny Jacobs.
The former WBC middleweight champion Chavez Jr (51-4-1, 33 KOs), opted not to take a VADA drug test before his December 20 fight against Jacobs on December 20 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Jacobs (36-3, 30 KOs) subsequently stopped Chavez Jr at the end of the fifth round when the 34-year-old chose not to come out for round six.
Chavez Jr had suffered a broken nose in the fifth, and it was bleeding and swollen badly. His famous father, Julio Cesar Chavez, didn’t react well in the audience, seeming as if he wanted him to continue fighting.
Had Chavez Jr continued to fight, Jacobs would have almost surely stopped him in a round or two, as he was gassed out and had nothing left. Chavez Jr was carrying too much size, and his cardio was gone after the first four rounds.
The Nevada Commission to hold a hearing
The Nevada Commission will be holding a hearing on August 5 to decide Chavez’s case over his decision not to be tested by VADA. What was surprising is Chavez Jr was still able to get clearance to take on Jacobs for the December 20 fight. According to ESPN, Jacobs-Chavez was initially supposed to take place in Las Vegas, but the Nevada Commission said no to the battle due to Chavez’s suspension.
In hindsight, it reflects poorly on promoter Eddie Hearn for his decision to let the Jacobs vs. Chavez Jr fight go ahead with what was hanging over the head of the Mexican fighter.
The match ended badly with Chavez Jr being booed loudly by boxing fans, with some of them throwing objects into the ring to voice their displeasure are him quitting on his stool. Hearn should have known from watching Chavez’s past fights that the contest might end this way.
There was brief confusion as to why Chavez Jr was quitting in his career. Initially, they thought Chavez was giving up because of a hand injury, but it turned out that he called it quits because of a broken nose.
A lot of fighters still compete when they suffer broken noses in their contests, which is why it was strange that Chavez Jr would give up after he suffered a similar injury.
Chavez Jr had to work his way through the crowd without getting brained by one of the flying objects that were being thrown by angry boxing fans, who were upset at paying their hard-earned money to see him quit. It was pure chaos in the ring with bottles being thrown into it, and it was a dangerous situation for the fighters, promoters, and the trainers.
Chavez Jr’s career has been going downhill since 2012
From 2010 to 2012, Chavez’s career looked promising. He had wins over Andy Lee, John Duddy, Sebastian Zbik, Peter Manfredo, Billy Lyell, and Marco Antonio Rubio.
Things started falling apart for Chavez Jr in 2012 when he lost his WBC 160-pound title to Sergio Martinez by an embarrassingly one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in Las Vegas. Since that loss, Chavez Jr’s has never been the same. He was subsequently suspended after his loss to Martinez for testing positive for marijuana.
When Chavez Jr did return to the ring a year later, he struggled in beating Brian Vera by a controversial 10 round decision in September 2013. In their rematch, Chavez Jr defeated Vera by a conclusive 12 round unanimous decision in March 2014, but he still didn’t look impressive.
Chavez Jr stayed out of the ring for 13 months before returning at light heavyweight against Andrzej Fonfara, and he was stopped in nine rounds. Fonfara dropped Chavez Jr with a big left hook, and the fight was then waived off. Afterward, it was learned that Chavez Jr hadn’t trained hard for the contest, which was initially supposed to take place at 168, but he couldn’t make the weight.
Chavez Jr ended up weighing in at 171 lbs and looked slow and sluggish throughout the fight.
Canelo vs. Chavez Jr = disaster
Two years later, Canelo Alvarez surprisingly chose to fight Chavez Jr on Cinco de Mayo holiday in 2017 on HBO pay-per-view. Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya had said before the fight that Canelo vs. Chavez Jr would be a new war, but instead, it turned out to be the opposite.
Chavez Jr failed to let his hands go, making it easy for Canelo to dominate him in winning a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 120-108, 120-108, and 120-108. The Canelo-Chavez Jr fight brought in one million pay-per-view buys on HBO, which earned Chavez Jr a lot of money on top of his $5 million purses for the contest.
Canelo-Chavez was a hard fight to watch, though for the lack of two-way action. In the later rounds, Canelo tried to encourage Chavez Jr to throw punches by backing up against the ropes and inviting him in to throw shots. Unfortunately, Chavez Jr just stood in front of Canelo without taking advantage of the opportunity.
The crowd at the T-Mobile Arena loudly booed both fighters, upset at what they were seeing. Again, this is a situation that could have been avoided if Golden Boy had taken a good look at Chavez’s past fights and realized what they would get out of him. Yeah, the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr made money, but ultimately, it gave Golden Boy a black eye due to the inferior product that they’d sold to the fans.
They would have been better off taking a less famous fighter than Chavez Jr that was capable of giving Canelo a tough fight. Back then, Gennady Golovkin wanted to fight Canelo, but he had to wait until September 2017 before he was finally given a chance to fight him.