There had never been any denying of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.’s star appeal, as he has had a way of grabbing headlines over the years.
But when it comes to his abilities as a fighter, Chavez has never been able to emerge from the shadow of his legendary father of the same name.
More upsetting news for Chavez supporters came from Tijuana, as Junior was upset by unheralded Mario Cazares recently in Mexico.
The 34-year-old Chavez dropped a technical decision to the unbeaten yet totally unknown Cazares by scores of 57-56, 57-56, and 59-54.
If you still had faith in Chavez (51-5-1, 33 KO), now may be the time to officially call it a day and get off the bandwagon.
Chavez is still a big name, but now he is past his prime, and the results are telling.
Cazares (12-0, 5 KO) may be an unbeaten prospect, but he’s not really proven in any regard. Before the Chavez fight, he only once faced a fighter with a winning record, a guy who was 9-8-1.
It was obvious very quickly that Cazares was focused, and perhaps Chavez was not. And that’s been the case for a long time for Junior.
Chavez now appears to be a fighter who doesn’t really want to be in the ring anymore. During this matchup he showed very little boxing skills and instead was looking up for a big right hand most of the fight.
Cazares did the better work overall, even if he didn’t dominate the fight and let Chavez win a few rounds.
The end result arrived when Chavez was pulled from the fight due to a cut above his eyelid after what was ruled an accidental headbutt. That forced things to go to scorecards, where Chavez came up short…again.
Cazares wasn’t special but he was the more steady guy in the ring. Cazares started slow but won the middle rounds, and the judges in Mexico weren’t in a mood to give Chavez any favors.
It’s hard to believe that Junior was once one of the most prized pupils training under just the legendary Freddie Roach, along with fighters like Manny Pacquiao and Aamir Khan.
Junior had some success and was even the WBC middleweight champion for a while, until he lost his title to Sergio Martinez after being dominated in 2012.
And now it appears his best move may be to walk away, although we could likely expect to see him fighting again.
His father, the legendary Julio Cesar Chavez, faced former champion Jorge Arce held their third exhibition bout on the same evening in Tijuana.
Chavez and Arce wore headgear and fought in t-shirts, but they actually fought a bit, throwing plenty of leather in their four rounds of action.
It was actually crazy to see that elder Chavez fighting harder than his son and having more of an impact despite his advanced age of 58 years old.
Who knows what will happen to Junior after this but tonight was another reality check for him.
