As it has been already established, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who is the son of a Mexican legend, has not had the best of luck in and out of the ring as of late. Back in 2012, Chavez Jr. was picked apart in eleven of twelve rounds against Sergio "Maravilla" Martinez in a showdown for the middleweight title of the world. But, in the twelfth round, Chavez Jr. came back with a valiant effort dropping the champion. That knock down caused a severe knee injury, pretty much ending the career of the great Maravilla.
After the Martinez fight, Chavez Jr. (49-2-1, 32 KOs) tested positive for having THC in his system during the training camp leading up to the biggest fight of his boxing career. Instead of seizing the opportunity to do mitt work with hall of fame trainer Freddie Roach, Chavez Jr. instead opted to do mitt work in the middle of his living room, when he wanted to, with one of his training camp hang-arounds. If Chavez Jr. would have won the fight, it would have made him the true middleweight champion of the world. But he lost and lost badly.
After that loss, Chavez Jr. decided to take on contender Bryan Vera (23-10, 14 KOs) at 168 pounds after initially making it a contract weight of 163. Well, that weight was not high enough for Chavez Jr. and he came in overweight. The fight went on, and Chavez Jr. won by a controversial decision. Actually, Bryan Vera won -- the judges just screwed it up. A rematch ensued and Chavez Jr. actually showed up in fighting shape. He ended up taking a decision win over Vera.
Then came the fight with Andrzej Fonfara (27-3, 16 KOs) a true Polish light heavyweight, who gave a superb effort against WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson. Now why in the world would Chavez Jr. want to fight a man as big as Fonfara, who gave a good effort against one of boxing's deadliest punchers? The man shoots that straight left down the pipe so accurately, it makes Manny Pacquiao want to quote Bruno Mars and say, "HOT DAM!" Well, Chavez Jr. chose to fight the much bigger Fonfara and got his granite chin tested. Chavez Jr. got dropped in the ninth round for the first time in his career. He later threw in the towel, giving the win to Fonfara.
After going through trainers Freddie Roach and Joe Goosen, Chavez Jr. is now settling on Robert Garcia. Chavez Jr. decided to cherry pick a fight against Marcos Reyes (33-3, 24 KOs), a blown up middleweight who has non-existent punching power, similar to Paulie Malignaggi. The contracted weight was 170 pounds. Chavez, once again comes in overweight at 170.8.
Not only has Chavez Jr. come in heavy in two out of his last four fights, his boxing looked terrible against Reyes. The man came in with his head down, shot his left hook and right hand the whole fight, obviously trying to knock out the physically smaller Reyes. The one or two rounds Chavez Jr. did use his jab, shockingly he won the round. But, Chavez Jr. reverted back to leading with his head and trying to knock out Reyes.
Chavez Jr. should have won the Reyes fight by knock out or a decision win by a
very wide margin. Yes, he claimed he hurt his hand in the third round. Although even before the third, he looked like he wanted a simple knock out, collect a paycheck, and go home. I am really not sure what Robert Garcia could do for Chavez Jr. If Chavez Jr. wants to be world champion again, something has got to change. Only Chavez Jr. knows what the answer is, to bring him back to being a solid contender.
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