Fonfara stops Chavez Jr in 9th round!

By Boxing News - 04/18/2015 - Comments

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr vs Andrzej FonfaraBy Allan Fox: Former WBC 160 pound champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (48-2-1, 32 KOs) took a real beating on Saturday night in getting dropped in the 9th round and stopped at the end of the round by former light heavyweight world title challenger Andrzej Fonfara (27-3, 16 KOs) in their catch-weight fight at 172 pounds at the StubHub Center, in Carson, California.

Fonfara flattened the 29-year-old Chavez Jr. in the 9th round. A badly hurt Chavez Jr. got back to his feet and was able to make it out of the round. However, in between rounds Chavez Jr. opted not to come out for the 10th. As wobbly as Chavez Jr. looked after getting up from the knockdown, it was pretty clear that he wouldn’t have made it past the 10th if he had come out for that round. He was far too hurt to recover in between rounds.

In hindsight, it was a really bad idea on Chavez Jr. and his handler’s part to take a fighter as dangerous as Fonfara for the first fight in 13 months. Chavez Jr. hadn’t fought since early in March of 2014 when he defeated middleweight journeyman Brian Vera. That was the second time that Chavez Jr. had fought Vera, and that was a clear sign that Chavez Jr. has no business fighting either at super middleweight or light heavyweight. If he couldn’t even dominate a middleweight journeyman then he was asking for trouble in fighting a big punching light heavyweight like Fonfara.

What struck me about Chavez Jr’s performance tonight was how slow he was in terms of hand speed and foot speed. He looked really slow as he plodded around the ring after Fonfara. Further, Chavez Jr’s punching power didn’t look impressive either. At middleweight, Chavez Jr. had power compared to the guys he was fighting because he was frequently ballooning up in weight after he’d rehydrate following the weigh-ins. But against a guy that fights in the light heavyweight division in Fonfara, Chavez Jr. looked really bad. His lack of power and hand speed was really pronounced in this fight.

There’s no word yet about a rematch between Chavez Jr. and Fonfara, but you would have to assume that Chavez Jr. is going to push for a second fight. This is what Chavez Jr. has done in the past when he was held to a controversial draw against Carlos Molina in 2006, and was given questionable wins over Matt Vanda and Brian Vera. I personally think it’s a good idea for Chavez Jr. to ever fight Fonfara again because I think Chavez Jr. will lose to him just as badly in a rematch. It wouldn’t be good for Chavez Jr’s career to lose to Fonfara a second time, or take the fight and be given a controversial win like his first fights against Vanda and Vera.

Other boxing news results on the card:

Fernando Guerrero SD 10 Abraham Han
Omar Chavez UD 8 Richard Gutierrez
Anthony Flores UD 6 Will Hughes
John Wesley Nofire RTD 3 Joell Godfrey
Jordan Shimmell RTD 5 Carlos Reyes
Jessie Roman UD 8 Evincii Dixon
Anthony Flores UD 6 Will Hughes



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