Juniors no chip off the old block

In the 1980s and early 90s, the name Julio Cesar Chavez became synonymous with Mexican boxing. Not only that, but synonymous also with his nation’s esteemed fighting pride and iron will, with his record of 87-0 before his first professional defeat and the nature of many of his thrilling performances, earning him celebrity status and installing him as a national hero and boxing legend.

Chavez’s prominence would make a huge impact on his eldest son, Julio Jr, who became an ever-present during his father’s training camps and would sit ringside for every bout. Before his fights, Chavez would allow Julio and his younger brother Omar into the ring with him and, exposed to the live audience and television cameras, the brothers became known to boxing fans the world over.

It was inevitable that both Julio Jr and Omar would enter the squared circle themselves, with the elder sibling going on to establish a succesful career of his own. That career was reignited last Saturday, when Julio Cesar Chavez Jr returned to the ring following a year-long absence to score a controversial ten round decision over game and likeable middleweight contender Bryan Vera.

When the scores were announced at the StubHub Center in Carson, California the reaction of the overwhelming majority of people who had been watching the fight was complete shock. 98-92, 97-93 and 96-94 they read, all in favour of the fighter with the famous father. Almost everybody in attendance, as well those watching at home and all of the assembled fight media, instead had Vera winning by a close margin.

There’s no doubt the ten round-encounter was a close affair, with a plausible case to score the fight a draw, but unquestionably Vera had the edge, with it being a tough ask to see Chavez winning six of the ten rounds. To say that he won seven, or even eight of the rounds, as judges Marty Denkin and Gwen Adair did respectively, was outrageous. In a month of bad judging controversies, we had another and Vera had every right to feel hard done by.

As if the farcical build-up to the fight hadn’t been discourteous enough to the 31-year-old Texan, with Chavez’s ongoing circus of weight-making issues reaching a new level of unprofessionalism. Originally scheduled to be fought at a contracted catchweight of 163lbs on September 7th, Chavez was cut in training in early August and the bout was postponed.

When it was rescheduled for September 28th the fight was set for 168lbs, because Chavez had not continued to train while his cut had healed. There was no chance that he was making 163lb limit at that stage and then when fight week came around, another bombshell was dropped; he wouldn’t be able to make 168, either.

Junior’s dedication to the sport and his ability to make weight as a consequence, have long been under scrutiny.

Whilst it’s apparent that there are certain qualities that Junior did inherit from his father, his granite chin for example and his physical strength, durability and punching power, it’s also becoming clear that this man is no chip off the old block. Lacking are the work ethic, desire and heart of the Mexican warrior whose colossal fanbase he inherited, yet now continues to exasperate.

Following the revelation that Chavez was not on track to make the renegotiated super middleweight limit, his promoter Bob Arum announced during the Wednesday press conference that the fans, media and Vera would have to wait until Friday for the weight of the fight to be revealed. Vera was reportedly paid handsomely for the inconvenience by taking a portion of Chavez’s purse, but it was a drop in the $2.5 million ocean that Junior received and certainly had no impact on his conscience. He didn’t seem to care.

“The weight should not be a problem or an issue for anybody,” he said. “It’s not a championship fight. We’re not fighting for a title, so why do I have to come in at 168 pounds?”

Why should he have to? What a sense of entitlement the 27-year-old has. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he’s never had to fight to put food on the table the way his father did and never had to make the sacrifices that most fighters do having not come from such a privileged background as his.

Fighters from a much less privileged background who don’t complain like he does. Throughout the fight with Vera, Chavez repeatedly berated referee Lou Moret about phantom low blows and headbutts and continued to hound the 69-year-old official after the final bell.

‘Never complain, never explain’ is a mantra used by many high-acheivers in all walks of life. A former WBC middleweight titleholder, nobody can say that Chavez is not an acheiver, but he isn’t likely to reach his full potential. He has talent, but squanders it, as evidenced by his inability to make a contracted weight for this bout and struggles to make countless others in the past and also by the fact that ahead of the most important fight of his life last September – his unanimous decision loss to Sergio Martinez – he was smoking marijuana during his training camp for the contest.

He failed a post-fight drug test of course and was hit with a $900,000 fine and suspended nine months by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, though the monetary penalty was later reduced to $100,000. In the ring, Martinez outclassed Chavez for the majority of the twelve rounds but the youngster floored the champion in that final session to set up a dramatic finish and who knows, if he’d been a more dedicated athlete, would he have been able to finish Maravilla and claim a career-defining victory?

Perhaps it isn’t all Junior’s fault. Maybe Chavez senior should have been harder on his eldest son. It doesn’t help either that Arum and Top Rank, with the backing of their stronger than ever working relationship with their affiliate television giant HBO, create licence for Chavez to do pretty much whatever he pleases. He’s their cash cow and one they don’t want to upset.

Arum even went as far as justifying Junior’s marijuana consumption, insisting his fighter had done nothing wrong by smoking pot in the build-up to the fight. After the fall-out from last Saturday’s ‘victory’, Arum was naturally quick to jump to his fighter’s defence once again.

“(They) got it right. I thought so,” the 81-year-old promotional veteran quipped, “to say that Vera won that fight, that was absurd.”

Not to directly point a finger at corruption but had Vera officially won the fight, that could have scuppered plans for a clash between Chavez and super middleweight king Andre Ward next year, which is currently the most lucrative fight that Top Rank and HBO can make. Using his father’s name as a jumpstart, Arum is trying to mould Junior into a star. You can’t fabricate greatness however, no matter what the fighter’s last name is and how much emphasis you try to put onto his inflated 47-1-1 record.

Greatness is the result of immense talent meeting equally strong measures of hard work, dedication and sacrifice. How much Chavez Jr has of one of those ingredients, is debatable.

The other ingredients however, he fundamentally appears to be lacking. As such, he’ll never enjoy the legendary status of his old man.

Adonis Stevenson vs Tavoris Cloud: Will Superman fly through Thunder?

With one single left cross that possessed the force of super-breath and dropped Chad Dawson like the gravity would on Krypton, Quebec witnessed the arrival of Superman on June 8th at the Bell Centre in Montreal. The protagonist was not wearing a red cape however, or a blue costume emblazoned with a red-and-yellow “S” shield, rather the equally distinguishable yellow shorts of Detriot’s Kronk Gym, the place where this Canadian Clark Kent had cultivated his power.

Adonis ‘Superman’ Stevenson wiped out Dawson in one round to claim the WBC light heavyweight crown in his adopted home and this Saturday he returns to the Bell Centre to defend his title against a new nemesis. Tavoris ‘Thunder’ Cloud is hoping to bring the Kryptonite and re-establish himself as a force at 175lbs, after losing his aura of invincibility – and an IBF world title – against Bernard Hopkins in March.

Cloud (24-1, 19 KO’s) lost his unbeaten record against the history-making 48-year-old master, though many would argue his imposing-looking resume had already been devalued by his split-decision win over Gabriel Campillo a year earlier. Cloud had Campillo down twice, but struggled with the Spaniard for the majority of the twelve rounds and escaped with what many believe to be a controversial and ultimately very lucky decision.

No dispute can surround Stevenson’s rise to the summit of the light heavyweight ranks, with eight consecutive stoppage victories following his solitary loss, which he avenged by sixth-round knockout of Darnell Boone in his penultimate bout. The 36-year-old has awesome punching power but there’s much more in his locker including pretty underrated boxing ability and rather than free-swinging with his power shots, he sets them up methodically with jabs and feints.

Cloud possesses power that could potentially rival that of Stevenson but is more of a stereotypical puncher in that he looks for the knockout, and a pressure fighter with a high punch output. Where he lacks however is in his defensive capabilities, or at least his disregard for defending against the punches that are coming back at him, though he’s never hit the canvas and likely trumps Stevenson in his ability to take a punch.

Stevenson (21-1, 18 KO’s) was stopped by Boone in his only career defeat and would not appear to occupy the granite chin that Cloud does. Should they go toe-to-toe therefore, you’d perhaps favour Cloud to get the better of those exchanges. The 31-year-old Florida native is certainly a bigger puncher than Boone.

Then again, Stevenson will also be the hardest hitter that Cloud has faced, so although he has proven whiskers, it remains to be seen whether he can take Adonis’s power. An ideal gameplan for the champion nonetheless would be to try and keep this fight on the outside with his jab, stopping Cloud from entering his comfort zone up close and providing plenty of room to set up that huge left hand. For the challenger, getting inside Stevenson’s punching range has got to be the target where he can wear Superman down with his activity and neutralise the champion’s speed.

Saunders and Ryder look to Rock the Box

This weekend sees Billy Joe Saunders and John Ryder finally meet in a fantastic domestic dust-up, when the unbeaten young middleweights battle for Saunders’ British title at the excellent new Copper Box Arena in London. The site at the heart of the capital hosted handball and modern pentathlon at last year’s inspirational home Olympics and what better way to celebrate it’s rebranding as a boxing venue than having Saunders long-awaited clash with Ryder headlining it’s first bill.

Saunders (18-0, 9 KO’s), an Olympian himself having competed in the 2008 games, capitalised on the exposure of Beijing and signed professional papers with Frank Warren in the immediate aftermath. Since then, the 24-year-old from Hatfield has impressed fans and media alike en route to winning and defending British and Commonwealth straps and since stepping up to championship level has dispatched a credible list of domestic contenders in style.

He won his Commonwealth crown with a unanimous decision over Bradley Pryce in June 2012 and saw off the challenge of unbeaten Australian Jarrod Fletcher with ease in just two rounds of his first defence. Before the year was out, he added the British title with a hard-fought twelve rounds against Nick Blackwell and this year, recorded comfortable points wins against Matthew Hall and, last time out, Gary O’Sullivan.

Ryder (15-0, 9 KO’s) had been steadily building up his winning ledger in relatively inconspicuous fashion, until he made observers sit up and take note when he took the unbeaten record of Eamonn O’Kane last December. The Islington southpaw, known as the ‘Gorilla’ because of his strength and aggressive approach, bludgeoned O’Kane to an eighth-round stoppage and in the process became Saunders’ number one contender for the Lonsdale belt.

Talk of the fight started there, but fans have had to wait this long for the match-up. In the meantime, Ryder kept himself busy this year with an eight round points win over Farai Musiyiwa, followed by a two-round stoppage of journeyman Yoann Bloyer in July.

Credit to the late Dean Powell, whose matchmaking put the Copper Box card together with this intriguing headline act. As with any clash of unbeaten, up-and-coming fighters we have more questions than answers as they go into battle.

Saunders is the more proven entity as a professional and combined with the depth of his amateur career is vastly more experienced than his opponent, though Ryder also had a successful amateur slate winning 30 of his 35 bouts. He may not have the pedigree that Saunders has in competing at the highest level with headguards in the Olympics, but his style is more suited to the pro game, with his tactics come Saturday night no doubt based around being the aggressor whilst trying to utilise his edge in power. Though he’s dominated, Saunders has often struggled to put his opponents away and could his lack of power cost him when he steps up to elite level, or even against a strong challenger like Ryder?

Ryder has never been twelve rounds though, whereas Saunders has on several occasions and could Ryder have been flattered somewhat by his win over O’Kane? Saunders has faced a consistently higher-level of competition going into this encounter and is a big favourite to have his hand-raised here and continue on his ascent.

Floyd Mayweather is ‘The One’

Floyd Mayweather Jr emphatically came through what was expected to be his toughest test in years on Saturday night, putting on a boxing masterclass  to comprehensively decision Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez at a sold-out MGM Grand. In a performance that was exemplary even by his own very high standards, Mayweather epitomised the hit-and-not-be-hit mantra of boxing and, approaching his thirty-seventh birthday, arguably looked as good as he has done for over a decade.

Just four months after his domination of Robert Guerrero, Floyd was as sharp as a razor and landed on Alvarez with ease as he avoided the young Mexican’s blows with his trademark defence. Most of those on press row scored the fight a near shutout for Floyd if not awarding him every round of the fight, as did most observers in general unofficially, whether they were part of the 16,746 in attendance or watching at home.

Incredibly however, the official judges scores were remarkably tight, with Dave Moretti and Craig Metcalfe scoring the fight 116-112 and 117-111 respectively. The card of C.J Ross meanwhile was an unforgiveable travesty, as she saw the one-sided victory as a 114-114 draw.

The history books may therefore see this as a close encounter, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Despite a typically uneventful first round from Mayweather in which he measured his opponent, Alvarez had little to offer as the veteran landed with jabs to steal the opener.

It’s known that Las Vegas judges often give the benefit of the doubt to the aggressor, which Canelo was, but the aggression wasn’t effective. Ring generalship was a tick in the box for Mayweather, who was effective, as ever, playing the matador role and clean punching and defense were scoring factors that should also have been seen in the 36-year-old’s favour.

Quite how Ross effectively saw six rounds of the fight for Canelo is a mystery, as each one passed almost a carbon copy of the one before. As he warmed into the fight, Mayweather began to up his offence and in round four tagged Alvarez with a succession of hurtful right hands. The best shot Alvarez landed in the round was a low blow that earned a warning from referee Kenny Bayless.

Mayweather (45-0, 26 KO’s) snapped Canelo’s head back with one right hand and by the fifth, the left side of Alvarez’s face began to swell. In the sixth round, Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KOs) – who had been contracted to weigh-in at 152lbs for the light middleweight title fight against the smaller Mayweather, but on fight night reportedly held a weight advantage of 15lbs – also looked as though he was beginning to tire.

As the fight progressed into the second half, it looked as though the accumulation of punches might lead to an unlikely stoppage, despite Mayweather not being a renowned puncher and Alvarez possessing a solid chin. Mayweather is known for being a safety-first fighter however and that was how that the later rounds played out, as Floyd eased his feet off the pedal when he could afford too and coast to what he thought was a wide points win.

There’s no doubt that Alvarez could argue a share of a couple of the later rounds, maybe the eighth and the twelfth, when Floyd either took a round off or was content to see out the decision on his bicycle. But even then, Floyd was potshotting him and though Canelo landed with some shots he had little success. When the final bell rang, he knew as well as anyone that he’d relinquished his lineal light middleweight crown.

Just 23-years-of-age, there’s no doubt that Canelo will learn from the defeat and it’s likely that the fight came at least a year too early in his development. He’ll be back in 2014, probably as a middleweight, and continue on his path to becoming a great fighter. On Saturday night, he simply came across one of the greats of all time.

Garcia upsets Matthysse and the odds-makers in the process

Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia upset the odds-makers once again and turned in arguably the finest performance of his young career to date, defeating Lucas Matthysse by unanimous decision at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas to retain his world light welterweight crowns. In a fight hotly tipped to produce a knockout and with the hard-punching Matthysse the heavy favourite to do so, Garcia showcased a solid chin, sublime boxing skills and thudding punching power of his own to keep his unbeaten record intact.

Garcia (27-0, 16 KO’s) closed Matthysse’s right eye midway through the fight and floored the Argentinian challenger in the eleventh round, going on to win by official scores of 114-112 (twice) and 115-111. That included a point deduction for the champion in the final round after he hit Matthysse (34-3, 32 KO’s) with a low blow, but even so the scores seemed a little closer than how the round-by-round action had truthfully transpired.

Matthysse was installed as a 1/3 favourite with the unbeaten lineal light-welterweight champion a 9/4 outsider, with most observers believing Garcia would be lucky to survive into the later portions of the fight. The 30-year-old challenger was riding an imperious six-bout knockout streak that included the scalps of highly rated Ajose Olusegun and Lamont Peterson, whilst Garcia’s opposition had been heavily criticised coming in despite making his third defence of his WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine 140lb straps.

The atmosphere was electric as the opening bell sounded to bring the protagonists to centre ring and though we were provided with a tentative opener, the action was simmering nicely throughout the first two rounds. Matthysse was pressing the action and Garcia retreating, but maintaining the distance and boxing well. When Lucas did get to Garcia with power shots, they drew gasps from the crowd but didn’t trouble the 25-year-old.

There seemed to be a realisation from Garcia that he could take the challenger’s vaunted power and although Matthysse began to close the gap, the champion was growing in confidence. He took the fourth round comfortably and was beginning to build an early lead. His jab was controlling the action and he began to mix it up with body work, whilst his movement and judgement of distance were fantastic. Matthysse’s power was the ever-present danger and he was occasionally getting through but Garcia gave as good as he got, quelling the Argentine with hard counter shots.

Matthysse would have a huge session in the sixth though and getting through more often he appeared to slow Garcia down, but like his Philadelphia mentor Bernard Hopkins, Garcia was proving he could take a shot. They breed them tough in Philly and that fortitude was needed with Matthysse coming back into the fight. It’s unlikely anywhere breeds them tougher than Matthysse however and he was coming on strong.

All thirty-six of the Trelew native’s previous opponents had taken a trip to the canvas and with half of the fight remaining and the pendulum swinging, the consensus prediction for a late Matthysse stoppage was perhaps looking more likely. But that would all change again in the seventh, when early in the round a grotesque swelling began to close the right eye of the challenger and unable to see what was coming from Garcia’s left, he was hit with a vicious combination.

If anyone was going to get the stoppage, it looked like Garcia, as with the eye fully closed the corner and the referee began to take a closer look. The warrior in Matthysse pleaded with his corner-men to let him continue however and they did a great job with the swelling to re-open the eye. Rounds eight and nine were one-sided in Garcia’s favour and he could afford to drop the pace, but back came Matthysse in the tenth. He took the round and came out flying out at the start of the eleventh, sending Garcia’s mouthpiece flying out of the ring with a monster right hand as the champion was backed against the ropes.

But Garcia was resilient again and with a champion’s response, turned the penultimate three minutes on it’s head, dropping Matthysse into the ropes with a clubbing right hand to score a knockdown. Lucas wasn’t hurt but his chances in the fight were as he clearly needed a knockout to win. That’s exactly how he came out to finish the fight in the twelfth and immediately rocked Garcia.

Both guys landed combinations, then Garcia caught Matthysse with the low shot and referee Tony Weeks had no option but to deduct a point having warned Garcia about the infringement earlier on. There were no real complaints from Matthysse, who took it like a man and again came back strong. The two traded fantastic exchanges right up to the final bell of what had was ultimately the show-stealing fight on the card.

Top billing was of course Floyd Mayweather’s clash with Saul Alvarez, with Mayweather comprehensively winning a decision and with his hugely impressive win at the top of the undercard, Garcia entered his name into the sweepstakes for Floyd’s next opponent. He’s continually been written off and was again here, but now Garcia’s labour is really beginning to bear fruit and a big money clash or at least a move to welterweight is surely next on the agenda for the undisputed king at 140lbs.