A COOL MILLION BUCKS MOTIVATES CHAVEZ JR TO MAKE WEIGHT
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 06 May 2017
LAS VEGAS -- Golden Boy Promotions moments ago held the much awaited ?weigh-in? for the fighters of their Cinco de Mayo extravaganza at the T-Mobile Arena here in Las Vegas featuring two Mexican warriors, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez. The event was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and was witnessed by a huge partisan crowd that was predominantly Mexican.
Succumbing to the hype orchestrated by the Golden Boy Promotions, many Mexican fans lined up to grab seats for the weigh-in as early as 9:30:00 am. The event, as in the case of many of these ?huge? fight cards started late, not as scheduled at 2:00PM. But that did not really matter as the fans were well entertained by the ear-busting music at the Arena, a Mariachi Band and the impromptu partisan cheering contest between the supporters of Alvarez and Chavez ala a Division 1 soccer game between Guadalajara?s Chivas and Sinaloa?s Dorados.
The Chavez-Alvarez fight was contracted at a catchweight of 164.5 pounds.
The ?house fighter?, Saul Alvarez tipped the scales at 164bs. His opponent Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., not to be outdone came in at 164 lbs as well.
We have a fight!
Chavez, the naturally bigger guy between the two fighters, has plenty of motivations to go down in weight to no more than 164.5 lbs. Part of the fight contract stipulates that he will have to pay a cool million dollars for every pound he is overweight on his first try at the scales.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr raises his fists after making weight.
Saul Canelo Alvarez looks relaxed after making weight.
So to his credit, he made weight on his first try. That indeed is a tribute to the supposedly ?undisciplined? Chavez, his trainer the legendary Mexican builder of world champions, Nacho Beristein, and his strength and conditioning man, Memo Heredia. As one Chavez fan indicated to this writer, ?making weight could be the beginning of something good for Chavez tomorrow night.
With Chavez coming in within the weight limit Team Chavez proved many boxing folks wrong. It certainly erased some of the bad memories of Chavez coming in overweight in previous fights.
And the extra million bucks the Alvarez camp thought they can grab from Chavez before they even step into the ring vanished into the thin air. Certainly, Heredia earned his keep on this one.
Apparently this current Heredia-molded version of Chavez Jr., is not the same Chavez Jr of old that got blown away by Andriez Fonfara in April 2015 at the StubHub Center in Carson, CA. This is the new and revitalized Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., out to prove a point, so they say! His body language at the scales says it all! Chavez Jr is more than ready!
In paper, the fight appears to be that of a blockbuster particularly with all the hype generated by the spin makers at Golden Boy Promotions. However from this writer?s perspective it is just another fight made for the crowd because in reality it is not a true middleweight bout being fought at a limit of 160 lbs. But it could still generate lots of cash for Golden Boy Promotions and the fighters involved and potentially go over 600K on PPV.
As mentioned, it is at 164.5, a catch weight. Like I always said, what?s the use of having weight division limits when they are routinely ignored? Money grab, I supposed.
But at any rate this fight is really of no important significance other than two Mexicans warriors fighting on Cinco de Mayo in Las Vegas. There is even no apparent legitimate title at stake. It is nothing but for pure Mexican machismo!
Since that is the case, the ever-enterprising WBC from Mexico City, concocted a belt that will go to the winner. But Alvarez refuses to recognize the belt and said he will not accept it in the event he wins. Poor WBC maybe kissing goodbye the thousands in sanction fees they were expecting from a meaningless belt.
On the other side of the coin, if Chavez bucks the 7-1 odds that the fight will go 12 rounds and beat the odd makers at Las Vegas, the whole middle weight division will go bananas. It will further create an uptick to the well-deserved value of the great Triple G, and burst the bubble of the orange-head Alvarez, the now Golden Boy cash cow.
The other weight results:
Joseph Aguirre (16-0-9, 9KO) (Cancun, MX)?..135 lbs
Angel Aispuro (8-4-2,5KO) Culiacan, MX) ??.134.lbs
Rony Rios (27-1-0, 12 KO) (Sta. Ana CA) ?.122 lbs
Dniel Noriega (228-10-1,15KO) (Chihuahua, MX) ?122lbs
Raul Curiel (Pro Debut) (Tamaulipas, MX) ?148 lbs
Jesus Sanchez (1-1-2) Michoacan, MX 148.5
Marlene Esparza (1-0-0) (Houston, TX) ?110 lbs
Samatha Salazar (3-2-1) (Dallas, TX) ( 111.5 ) (111. After stripping off pants)
Ryan Garcia (8-0-0,7KO) (Victorville, CA) ?131.5 lbs
Tyrone Luckey (8-6-3,6 KO) ( Long Beach, CA ?131.5 lbs
Joseph Diaz Jr (23-0-0, 13KO) (So. El Monte, CA) ?125.5
Manuel Avila (22-0-0,8KO) (Fairfield, CA) 125 lbs
FOR THE VACANT NABF FEATHERWEIGHT TITLE)
Lucas Mattysee (37-4-0, 34KO) (Chubut, Argentina)?147 lbs
Emmanuel Taylor (20-4-0-,14KO) ( Cleverly, MD) ?147.lbs
FIR THE VACANT WBO INTERNATIONAl and WBA INTERCONTINENTAL WELTERWEIGHT TITLES
David Lemieux (37-3-0-33KO) (Montreal, Canada) ----163, Lbs
Marco Reyes (35-4-0,26 KO) (Chihuahua, MX)
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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