This Saturday we will see the latest instalment in the career of the hugely popular Jake Paul. Going out as a DAZN PPV offering, Paul will of course fight Julio Cesar Chavez Junior at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, this in a cruiserweight bout. On the same card, two-belt cruiserweight champ Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez will defend against Yuniel Dorticos.
It is, though, the main event between Paul and Chavez that has stirred up the most interest. Some people do see this as a genuinely risky fight for Paul, a fight that, should he get the win, will earn him respect. Others feel Chavez, at age 39, is a faded force of what he once was and that he has been pretty much hand-picked by “The Problem Child.”
Marquez Wants an Annihilating Knockout
Both men are predicting a KO win.
Mexican great Juan Manuel Marquez – who has thus far managed to avoid being lured back into the ring to take a fight with a Paul or another influencer who wants a legendary fighter’s name on his record – says he wants to see his countryman score an “annihilating” knockout on Saturday.
“Dinamita” says he thinks that if he suffers a KO defeat, Paul, 11-1(7) will have more respect for the sport.
“I wish them both success and that they come out in good health,” Marquez said when speaking with Pro Box TV. “I would like to see Julio Cesar Chavez Jr raise his hand in victory. He has to be very effective. He has to be very good to show that boxing deserves respect, that boxing deserves all the loyalty of a fighter. I’d like to see Junior annihilating [Paul] like Anthony Joshua did with [Francis Ngannou]. The knockout route and we never saw him again. I would like to see that, but that both come out in good health….Julio Cesar Chavez Jr by knockout so that Paul can say the sport of boxing deserves respect.”
Respect or Ruin: The Fight’s Implications
So, in a nutshell, Marquez wants to see boxing’s good name held up, this with the “real” fighter putting the YouTuber firmly in his place. It would be quite something if Chavez, 54-6-1(34) did manage to score the type of vaporising KO Joshua registered when he wiped out MMA giant Ngannou. If that did happen, would it be the end of Paul? Maybe.
Chavez, even at age 39, should win, so long as he has trained as hard as we have been led to believe he has, and if he has not made, shall we say, quite cynically, an “agreement” with Paul. This fight, if it’s on the level, with no script in place (and some fans do believe a prearranged fight is what will actually go down, with Chavez complying as he is getting the kind of massive payday he would never have otherwise been able to get at this late stage of his career) – should end with a Chavez win.
But don’t go betting on a Chavez win!
