Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Brian Vera agreed to a 173-pound catchweight for their bout on Saturday night at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. as reported by BoxingScene.com, and the two fighters came in under the limit Friday, with Vera weighing in at 171.2 pounds and Chavez Jr. at 172.4 pounds.
The fight was originally scheduled to be held at a catchweight of 163 pounds—three pounds above the middleweight limit—but was changed multiple times leading up to the 173 pounds that was agreed upon just days before the fight.
Chavez is making his return to the ring after his loss to Sergio Martinez and subsequent suspension for testing positive for marijuana in a post-fight drug test.
Vera has been more than accommodating to the weight drama, as this will be the biggest fight of his career, so he is not letting the 10-pound weight change damage his will to fight the former middleweight champ.
Not afraid to mix it up, Vera (23-6, 14 KOs) should offer an exciting bout Saturday night, and Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KOs) must take him seriously in order to avoid a career-damaging upset loss.
Weight issues have been a problem for Chavez Jr. as of late, making it blatantly obvious that it is time for Chavez Jr. to move up to super middleweight (168 pounds) or light heavyweight (175 pounds) to avoid this needless drama before fights.
A move to light heavyweight could be an issue, as it would be interesting to see if his power would translate to the higher weight. It would also be interesting to see how Chavez Jr. would take a punch from a much larger opponent than he is used to.
There are plenty of big name fighters at both divisions, so HBO would have no problems setting up fights that the public would want to see if Chavez Jr. chose to move up.
Many are questioning Chavez Jr.’s discipline after the multiple weight changes in addition to his lackadaisical training schedule that was shown in HBO’s 24/7 series leading up to his unanimous decision loss to Martinez last September.
The strange training sessions eventually lead to Chavez Jr. parting ways with hall of fame trainer Freddie Roach, but there is talk of Chavez Jr. returning to Roach according to ESPN.com.
Returning to Roach would be a wise decision as under his tutelage Chavez Jr.’s career flourished and nabbed him his world title belt.
Chavez Jr. has a huge fan following in the sport most fighters would kill for, and for him to not put his all into his career, especially at this stage after holding a major world title, is ridiculous.
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