Major Distractions for Canelo and Chavez, Jr.
By Ralph Rimpell
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 01 May 2017
This upcoming Saturday May 6, 2017, will be ?Cinco De Mayo? Weekend. Every time this year as that date approaches there seems to be a fight worth watching. This time the fight will be WBO Jr. Middleweight champion Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez fighting against former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.
There is reported genuine bad blood between both fighters and believe it or not this is a ?crossroads? fight for both fighters. For readers who may not know Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., he is the son of Mexican Boxing Legend Julio Cesar Chavez, Sr. Chavez Jr. has amassed a professional record of 54-2-1, 32KOs (1 no contest) and is a former WBC middleweight (160lb) champion. Not bad considering most fighters? sons who become professional fighters don?t even make it to a championship fight. Many observers feel Chavez Jr.?s career was carefully scripted or guided. No matter what the opinion, the fact remains he has only lost officially twice and has won most of his fights. After winning the vacant WBC middleweight title he made three successful defenses. The last was against the capable Andy Lee who would go on to eventually win a middleweight championship of his own, the WBO. In his fourth defense, Chavez Jr. then almost shockingly knocked out former two division weight champion and likely future hall of famer, Sergio Martinez before losing a unanimous decision. In reference to boxers, Boxing Promoter Murad Muhammad once said the goal of a boxer is to ?make money, win a world title, and then make some more money?. Chavez Jr has done just that. He may not and likely will not have the same success as Chavez Sr. had in boxing, but he has done well when focused.
Saul ?Canelo?Alvarez is a star and is one of the faces of boxing. His professional record stands at 48-1-1, 34KOs with is lone official loss from boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr. back in 2013. Not being able to secure a rematch with Mayweather or match against Manny Pacquiao, Canelo wants to prove himself against Gennady ?Triple G? Golovkin. His promotional team has had him take two fights in the interim (Liam and now Chavez) to likely build the boxing public interest for a ?Triple G ? fight and hopefully the ?Mainstream? interest to translate into high revenue PPV sales if and when the two fighters eventually meet in the ring. Maybe that works for Promoters and all involved in making the fight, but to the boxing fan who wants to see the best possible fights on Saturday nights, most feel Canelo has ?ducked? or avoided ?Triple G?. This writer does not believe that to be true.
So what is the significance of this fight? The winner of this fight will get an even bigger fight purse against unified middleweight Champion Gennady ?Triple G? Golovkin and the loser will go to the back of the proverbial line and have to rebuild his career. Both fighters' camps were offered a fight against ?Triple G? in the past and both camps refused. Chavez Jr. in 2014 and Canelo in 2016.The winner of this fight places himself in a good position to negotiate a better deal for that fight. If Canelo were to lose it would likely be the upset of the year! Also If Canelo struggles, but still defeats Chavez Jr. he will not be favored against Golovkin. On the other hand if Chavez Jr were to defeat Canelo that brings him back to when he was first offered the Golovkin fight in 2012 but with double or triple the money he was initially offered. If Chavez fights a good fight against Canelo but loses, his career can still move forward and he can continue to earn big paydays. If Canelo destroys Chavez, Jr. then his career is likely over.
There are issues to consider regarding Chavez and Canelo outside the ring. Almost two weeks ago Chavez Sr. called Chavez Jr. ?Bipolar? apparently in reference to his training efforts. There are mixed reports regarding his training. Is he taking this fight seriously or not? With the fight date approaching, Was Chavez Sr. statement just a psychological ploy to throw Canelo off his game or was it sincere? In reference to Canelo, he and Golden Boy Promotions lost a court decision to promotional outfit ?All Star Boxing?. The court awarded its owner Felix ?Tuto? Zabala $8.5 million in damages. Canelo and his former promoter were in court for 5 years. As of the writing of this article, there have been no known reported settlements or has the judgment been satisfied. According to ?FightNights? website, ?A Writ of Garnishment motion has been filed by All-Star Boxing against all financially vested parties involved with Alvarez' May 6 showdown with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.? That means Canelo who is reported to be making a minimum of $10 million against Chavez, will have $8.5 million deducted from his paycheck by the Sheriff. Factoring these two issues, Canelo with his promotional lawsuit and Chavez Jr. reportedly fighting with his Dad, Chavez Sr., Anything can happen on Saturday night.
Contact Writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com
About the Author:
Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over ten years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events. It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history.
"I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.
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