It can’t have been easy being the son of a famous Mexican boxing great and feeling the pressure from a young age to follow in your father’s footsteps and live up to his achievements. I think most people would always feel second best or embark upon a different career choice entirely, yet not Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, who – for all his numerous faults – has attempted (or was forced) to follow the family boxing tradition with mixed results over the years.
Chavez’s ring return comes in 8 days time when he fights Marcos Reyes, and it’s being seen as nothing more than a bounce-back fight for the Mexican former 160 lb champion after he seemingly quit on his stool against Andrzej Fonfara back in April in their 172 lb catch-weight clash.
Chavez Jr has recently said that if he cannot beat Reyes a week Saturday, then he may as well retire.
Ahead of his bout on the PBC card in Texas, he spoke to fighthype.com to talk about the big fights he would like in future after the 18th – although given the fact he can’t make 160 lb anymore, why he would mention Canelo or to an extent, Golovkin, is unclear unless GGG moved up.
He said;
“For me, I’d like to fight Ward, Golovkin or in a lesser way Canelo.”
“Why? Me and Golovkin would make a war, the way we fight for the fans. Me and Canelo I think too a great fight. Me and Andre Ward is more boxing but it’s great for boxing because he won a gold medal (Athens ’04) and he’s one of the best fighters in the world.”
Asked about the possibility of a Golovkin fight at a 164 catch-weight, which is the weight GGG’s manager Tom Loeffler allegedly said he’d fight Andre Ward at, (which seems strange given Ward is struggling to make 168 these days) Chavez said;
“I think a fight with Golovkin at 168. Come to my weight, fight at 168. I think I’ll have a problem at (making) 160.”
And should a match between them ever materialise, Chavez has taken note of some holes he sees in Golovkin’s game, noting that against Willie Monroe Jr, he felt the Kazakh gassed out at times. He obviously has a short memory as that’s one of the things that contributed to him quitting against Fonfara.
“I see in the last Golovkin fight against Willie Monroe, that he was a little tired in the 3rd and 4th rounds and I think the guy needs to look for better opposition. Now at 160 he don’t have opposition.”
“He needs to fight Froch, Dirrell, these kind of fighters you know? I think he’s very careful with his opponents you know?”
Golovkin? Cherry picking?
Not so sure about that Julio!
Twitter @Undilutedpoison