Chavez Jr-Vera set for March 1st in San Antonio, Texas

By Kevin Chittenden - 01/13/2014 - Comments

Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (47-1-1, 32 KO’s) has signed his contract for a rematch against Brian Vera (23-7, 14 KO’s) on March 1st on HBO at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. This time there will be a $250,000 weight penalty for Chavez Jr. if he can’t make the weight for the fight. As of now, it’ll be at 168 lbs., but it’ll be interesting to see if this weight will be nudged forward to the 170s like in his fight with Vera last September.

That weight ended up taking place at 173 lbs., and even then Chavez Jr. looked incredibly emaciated when weighing in. During the fight, Chavez Jr. looked as big as a cruiserweight, and one can only guess how heavy he was. Vera ended outworking Chavez Jr. and getting robbed in the eyes of many fans. Chavez Jr. looked good enough to win 3-4 rounds at best, and it was hard to understand what the three judges saw in his performance that made them score the fight for him.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum needs to consider advising Chavez Jr. to move up to the light heavyweight division, because it’s pretty clear that he’s too big for the 168 lb. division. He moved up in weight from 160 in the Vera fight last September, but with the way that Chavez Jr. struggled to make 168, he doesn’t belong at this weight. He really should be at least 175, and ideally at cruiserweight. Of course, if Chavez Jr. were to fight at 175, he’d have to compete against guys like Sergey Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson. As good as Chavez Jr’s chin is, it would be asking a lot of him to be able to take the big shots from those guys for 12 rounds.

The fact that Chavez Jr. looked drained at 173 lbs. in making weight for the Vera fight, it tells me that he needs to move up to cruiserweight. I don’t think even 175 would work for him. He’s just too big and he needs to be fighting with other cruiserweights instead of draining down to make 168 and then rehydrating up past the 190s.