Beristain reveals clash with Chavez Jr.

Boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Nacho Beristain and his fighter Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs) reportedly had a small clash over Chavez Jr. wanting to move their training camp from the Otomi Ceremonial Center to Las Vegas to get ready for the Saul Canelo Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) fight on May 6. Beristain was resistant to this idea, as he wants the 30-year-old Chavez Jr. to stay at Otomi until April 29 before moving over to Las Vegas the week of the fight.

Beristain didn’t want Chavez Jr. to spoil the great training camp that they’ve had thus far. Beristain isn’t sure why Chavez Jr. suddenly wanted to move the camp over to Vegas, but he wasn’t willing to go along with the idea.

Beristain says that he’s 47% certain that Chavez Jr. will win the fight against Canelo right now. He wants to finish out the training camp so that he can be more certain. Beristain sees this as a chance for Chavez Jr. to embarrass the 26-year-old Canelo in their fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight will be televised on HBO pay-per-view.

“That annoyed me a lot (that JC Jr. wanted to finish camp before), I told him I was wrong, we got in here for a month and a half and on a whim wants to ruin the job,” said Beristain to ESPN Deportes. ”I’m not playing, I’m professional. I said, ‘I’m not going to Las Vegas like this;’ he convinced himself that I’m not playing and he told me he’s fine, whatever he says,”Nacho stated.

Some boxing fans might suspect that Chavez Jr. wanted to go to Las Vegas early in order to have a good time in the city. Las Vegas is a city that never sleeps. There’s always something to do in that place no matter how late.

This is good news that Beristain was able to convince Chavez Jr. to keep the camp where he wanted it to be. It’s unclear why Chavez Jr. would want to go to Vegas this early. There would be a ton of distractions for Chavez Jr. in a city like Las Vegas, and the media would be climbing all over him. With Chavez Jr. getting a flat fee for the Canelo fight, it might not be worth it for him to work hard doing all the interviews 3 weeks before the fight if it’s not going to result in his own purse increasing. If Chavez Jr. gets a percentage of the pay-per-view upside, then it would make sense a little for him to start doing frequent interviews. The Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight is going to do well regardless. I don’t think it needs to be sold at this point.

The undercard for the Canelo-Chavez Jr. card is not a great one. To be sure, there are good names on the card, but the fights themselves are largely mismatches. Here’s the undercard:

David Lemieux vs. Marcos Reyes – This fight might last 3 rounds at the most before Lemieux ends it by knockout.

Joseph Diaz vs. Manuel Avila – Despite Avila being unbeaten, he’s going to be destroyed by Diaz.

Lucas Matthysse vs. Emmanuel Taylor – This fight might be competitive, but only because of Matthysse having been out of the ring for an entire year.

Raul Curiel vs. TBA

“I just told him I did not agree,” said Beristain about Chavez Jr. “It’s stupid to be up to the hour and hour to go down 15 days because who knows what bug stung him and spoil everything we’ve worked,” said Beristain.

Chavez Jr. still has a lot of work to do anyway before the Canelo fight. He’s the underdog, and he needs to be in the best possible shape he can be for him to be ready. It’s going to be hard enough for Chavez Jr. to shake off the largely 5 years of ring rust to be able to be competitive with Canelo.

Chavez Jr. hasn’t been a full time fighter since 2012. Even then, Chavez Jr. had stopped training hard by the time he fought Sergio Martine in September of 2012. Chavez Jr. just went through the motions in his training camp for the Sergio Martinez fight, and pretty much lost any chance he had of winning the fight by not putting in the amount of effort that he needed to. There were a lot of boxing fans that were interested in the Chavez Jr-Martinez fight, but it turned out to be a real disappointment.

Beristain says he wants to train Chavez Jr. for 6 full months regardless of what happens in the Canelo fight. He thinks he can improve Chavez Jr. if he can get him to be dedicated for six months of training. Hopefully, Chavez Jr. doesn’t disappear after he gets his big payday against Canelo. Chavez Jr. was well paid for his fight with Sergio Martinez in 2012. After that fight, Chavez Jr’s career and ambition screeched to a grinding halt for some reason. The big question is was it the money that Chavez Jr. got that took away his ambition? It would be a shame if Chavez Jr. stops fighting on a regular basis after he gets his big payday for the Canelo fight.

Porter: Chavez Jr. could be more of a challenge for Canelo than most people think

Welterweight contender Shawn “Showtime” Porter thinks that former 2 division world champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) could have more problems with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs) than many boxing fans think he will when the two Mexican boxing warriors meet on May 6 on HBO PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.. Porter expects Chavez Jr. to be able to make the 164 ½ pound catch-weight for the fights without any problems, and then fight well enough to give Canelo problems for at least 6 rounds.

Porter still thinks Canelo will come back to win the fight in the second half of the fight, but he’s not ruling out Chavez Jr. possibly pulling it off.

“It depends on the fighter,” said Shawn Porter to Fighthype.com in talking about whether Chavez Jr. will be able to drop the weight to get down to 164 ½ pounds for his catch-weight fight against Canelo Alvarez. “When I had to fight AB [Adrien Broner] at 144, I was willing to accept that challenge. I did everything I was supposed to do. I came back to fight fresh and ready to fight. I’m very, very curious to see what Chavez Jr. can do at the catch-weight. If he’s able to maintain focus and feel good at the weight and everything that he’s supposed to do, it could be a more challenging fight for Canelo than most people think it will be,” said Porter.

Chavez Jr. is similar to Canelo with the way that he used to melt down in weight to fight against lighter guys earlier in his career to gain an advantage over them. Chvez Jr. would then rehydrate up in weight and use his size to dominate his lighter opponents. Canelo has been doing the same thing, only he’s been doing it in the junior middleweight division against selective opposition, some of which has been welterweights. Canelo never fought the really dangerous 154lb fighters like Jermall Charlo or Demetrius Andrade.

“I want him to do it. I think it’ll be a challenge for the first half. I think Canelo will take over. I don’t think he’ll stop Chavez Jr., but I think he’ll win the fight unanimously,” said Porter.

You have to go with Canelo Alvarez right now to win the fight because Chavez Jr. has been out of the loop for too long. He’s not been quite as inactive as James Kirkland had at the time that he was handpicked by Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions to fight him, but he’s pretty close. Chavez Jr. has good boxing skills and punching power, but he’s just not done anything with his career since his defeat to Sergio Martinez.

One can say that Chavez Jr. has been an underachiever is putting it lightly. But if Chavez Jr. can shake off the ring rust of 5 years, he might be able to beat Canelo. If Chavez Jr. was a little younger at 26, you’d have to give him a better chance because a young fighter at that age could make up for years of inactivity to some extent. It’s a little trickier when you’re 30-years-old and arguably look a few years older than that.

“My guess is it won’t,” said Porter when asked if the drop in weight to 164.5lbs will affect Chavez Jr. “The reason is because he’s a professional. He’s been doing this for a long, long time. He’s not going to let 3, 4 or 5 lbs. stop him from achieving his goal, which is being victorious. I hope that’s his mindset,” said Porter.

The weight might not be an issue for Chavez Jr. for the Canelo fight. As Gennady Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez says, Chavez Jr. still might be a middleweight once he gets the weight off. The sad thing is Chavez Jr. will likely be lighter than Canelo for this fight. We’ve heard for the last 2 years from Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya that he’s not a true middleweight and that’s why he shouldn’t have to face Golovkin.