By Dan Ambrose: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (51-5-1, 33 KOs) was embarrassingly beaten by little known super middleweight prospect Mario Cazares (13-0, 5 KOs) by a six-round technical decision last Friday night in a light-heavyweight bout at the Grand Hotel in Tijuana, Mexico.
After the fight, Chavez Jr was in denial about the loss, believing that he’d done enough to win. He wants a rematch with Cazares. If that’s what he wants, Chavez’s father, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr, wants Julio to join him in December to be on his card.
It’s unclear if Chavez Jr’s cut left eye will be healed enough by then for him to fight. That’s only three months from now, and that’s not a lot of time for the cut to heal up.
Cazares, the busier fighter, was given the win by the scores 57-56, 59-54, and 57-56. Boxing News 24 scored it for the 30-year-old Cazares by a 59-54 score. He dominated the more prominent, slower, and older Chavez Jr though the entire fight with his powerful jab, left hook, and higher work rate.
In the second round, Cazares lost a point due to a head-butt. Cazares as falling forward a lot when he would throw shots, which led to him coming in contact with Chavez’s head. It didn’t help that Chavez Jr focused on throwing body shots, which put his head in harm’s way for the head-butts.
The former WBC middleweight champion Chavez Jr suffered a cut over his left eye from a clash of heads in the second round.
Chavez Jr looked like he didn’t want to continue
In the sixth, the fight was halted because of bleeding. At the time of the stoppage, it looked like Chavez Jr didn’t want to continue. His body language was that of a fighter that didn’t want to continue fighting when his cut was being looked at during the sixth round.
Chavez Jr had that same look to him hen he quit in his previous fight against Daniel Jacobs last December and his 2015 contest against Andrzej Fonfara. When the going gets tough, Chavez Jr seems to fall apart and looks for a way out. Luckily for Chavez, the crowd didn’t start raining the ring with trash after the fight was stopped the way they did last December when he quit in the 5th round against Jacobs in Phoenix, Arizona.
Chavez Jr didn’t want to continue fighting after he suffered a broken nose during the contest. That’s an injury that fighters often put up with during fights, and it was strange to see Chavez Jr opting to quit when it happened to him.
The defeat for Chavez Jr was his third loss in his last four fights since 2017. Up until last Friday night, Chavez Jr had only lost to quality fighters in Canelo Alvarez, Daniel Jacobs, Andrzej Fonfara, and Sergio Martinez during his career, but this was a new low.
Getting beaten by the unranked Cazares shows that Chavez Jr may need to start thinking about retirement unless he’s content with being conquered by 2nd tier opposition. Despite the loss, the 34-year-old Chavez Jr will press on with his sagging career.
But what the defeat for Chavez Jr means is he’s not likely going to entice the more famous fighters to face him anymore, as he has nothing to give them. If Chavez Jr can’t even beat lower-level warriors like Cazares, then there’s no point in him being used by any of the top guys as a B-side opponent.
Julio thinks he deserved the victory
“I was doing well. Mario Cazares is fast, but he was leading with his head. He even gave me a nasty unprofessional headbutt, and he just kept on holding and giving me headbutts,” said Chavez Jr via Fight News.
“It’s impossible for him to win. How could the judges give him the fight? I was putting the pressure and landing the heavier blows,” Chavez Jr said. “They took a point from him and he still won?
“I’ll fight anybody and if he wants it, we can run it back. It’s not his fault, it’s the referee’s for allowing him to get away with dirty tactics.”
The way the fight was going, Chavez Jr would have lost even if it had gone the full 10 round distance. He wasn’t able to hurt Cazares with his shots because he was only throwing single punches, and he wasn’t through of them.
Cazares probably would have been worn down quickly and stopped if Chavez Jr had thrown many shots. There was nothing wrong with Chavez’s power. He looked good with the sots that he did land, but he wasn’t throwing nearly enough of them to win the fight.
Chavez Jr can still punch
On a positive note, Chavez Jr’s power is still there. He can punch as hard as anyone at 168, but he doesn’t have the output, defense, hand speed, toughness, or the mobility to compete with contenders. The fact that Chavez Jr is losing to fighters like Cazares shows that he’s not going to do anything at 168.
If Chavez Jr had discipline, he would trim down to 160 and use his size to beat the fringe contenders in the division. But he’s not shown the dedication to get down in weight to 160, and it’s not a good sign that his last three fights have all taken place in the light-heavyweight division.
If Chavez Jr could throw another 40 punches per round, he would be a factor at 168, but not at 175. He’s got to do something about his eight. It doesn’t matter how many punches Chavez Jr throws per round; he’s not going to be able to live with the top light heavyweights like Artur Beterbiev or Dmitry Bivol.
Even if Chavez Jr could throw 100 punches per round, he would be over-matched against Beterbiev and Bivol. Those guys are naturally more significant, and more talented than him.
34 isn’t old but it is for someone like Chavez Jr, who is nowhere near as good as he was when he was dominated by Sergio Martinez in 2012. You can point to the big paydays that Chavez Jr has gotten during his career as perhaps the reason for his downfall. He hasn’t had the hunger in the last seven years that he once did.