by James Slater – 24-year-old undefeated light-middleweight/middleweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez Junior was this week handed a seven month suspension from the ring by The Nevada State Athletic Commission due to the fact that he took an illegal substance when heading into his November 14th 2009 points win over Troy Rowland..
The 41-0-1(30) fighter, on the advice of his doctor, took Furosemide, a dietary drug that helps a person lose weight. According to The Las Vegas Sun, Chavez Jr. began taking the prescription when he was hospitalised after complaining of feeling dizzy in a pre-fight workout a head of the Rowland match-up. Chavez was given a large amount of fluids and vitamins were also pumped into his body while he was in hospital, and apparently the fighter was subsequently worried about making the 160-pound weight limit the Rowland fight was set for. Chavez then took the dietary drug one time whilst in hospital and, as he freely admitted because he never knew the drug was illegal, one time the day before the weigh-in for the November fight.
“I did everything the doctor told me to do,” Chavez said at Monday’s hearing “I had complete trust in my doctor and in what he was giving me. I would take a lot of stuff from him without asking because I had 100 percent trust in him.
“I would like to say that I didn’t want to hurt anybody. Second, it was very embarrassing to me when my test came back positive. I have a clean image and I also have a family name with a clean image in the sport. I would never try to take advantage of the participant in front of me. Historically, I’ve never done anything wrong, but of course I understand the doubt [people may] have in me because I committed these mistakes.”
Chavez Jr has indeed got a clean image and this breaking of the rules is a first for him and it also seems as though the infraction was made purely by mistake – hence the Commission’s relatively lax sentence of just seven months (backdated to November, meaning Chavez is eligible to fight again in June). I feel the fans should and very probably will give the son of a Mexican legend the benefit of the doubt in this case.
As to who the exciting 154-pounder who had no amateur career will fight when he returns, The Las Vegas Sun reports that promoter Fernando Beltran has said one of the names being mentioned as a strong possibility for a June fight is crowd-pleasing Irishman John Duddy. Duddy must first win his fight on the under-card of the March 13th Pacquiao-Clottey bill, but assuming he does, a fight with Chavez would really be one to look forward to.
As for the points win Chavez scored over Rowland, the result has now been changed to a No-Decision.