By Dan Ambrose: Bob Arum of Top Rank is looking to put together the rematch between former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (47-1-1, 32 KO’s) and Brian Vera (23-7, 14 KO’s) for February 8th or 15th on HBO in Texas or Las Vegas, Nevada, according to Dan Rafael. Chavez Jr. defeated Vera by a controversial 10 round unanimous decision last September in Carson, California by the scores of 98-92, 96-94 and 97-93.
Arum thought the scores were fair, but few other people did and the outcome did little other than making Chavez Jr. look like he’d been given a gift decision. He initially spoke of moving on because he felt that the fight wasn’t close, but he quickly changed his mind and decided that he needed to fight Vera again.
Arum told ESPN “We’re looking at February 8th or February 15th…I think probably Texas.”
The fight will take place at 168 lbs., and it’s hoped that Chavez Jr. will be able to make weight this time without needing to have the weight bumped up to 173 lbs. like last time. Chavez Jr. was unable to make the 168 lb. limit and needed the weight to be moved up to 173 for him to make weight for the fight. Even then, Chavez Jr. looked huge compared to the much smaller Vera.
It looked like a cruiserweight facing a middleweight in the fight, and it’s surprising that Vera was able to do as well as he did given the size disadvantage he had. Chavez Jr. was able to land the harder shots in each round, but he was badly outworked and out-hustled by the hard-working Vera. Chavez Jr. did hurt Vera with some big shots on a couple of occasions in the fight, but he didn’t have the punch output to finish him off each time he had him hurt.
I’m sure this isn’t the fight that Arum wanted. Vera was supposed to have been a tune-up fight and little more than that, but he really exposed Chavez Jr. in a big way by taking the fight to him and punishing him the same way that Sergio Martinez did in 2012. Chavez Jr. looked slow and sluggish for the entire fight, and nothing like the fighter who had beaten Andy Lee, Marco Antonio Rubio and John Duddy.
Chavez Jr. needs to win without controversy this time because he’s going to look incredibly bad if the judges give him another controversial victory. It’s going to discredit him in a big way if he’s given victories one after another that the boxing public disagrees with.
I’m not sure how much interest there is in a second fight between Chavez Jr. and Vera. Chavez Jr. has to take the fight to prove to boxing fans that his poor performance last time was just a case of him not being in the best of shape. That may be the case because he certainly looked out of shape, but if Chavez Jr. is beaten by Vera in the rematch then it’s going to be difficult to see where Chavez Jr. can go. They’re trying to target WBC super middleweight champion Sakio Bika to get Chavez Jr. the best chance of picking up a title in this division, but if he can’t even beat Vera then his chances of winning a title at 168 will be nonexistent.
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