Chavez Jr. doubts Canelo will keep his word about bet

boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. recently bet their purses on the outcome of their May 6th fight on HBO PPV. However, Chavez Jr. wants to make it a legal bet by having them sign a contract, because he doesn’t trust Canelo due to him having told middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin that he would fight him after he had beaten Amir Khan last May. Chavez Jr. noted that Canelo didn’t keep his word, and ended up not only not fighting Golovkin, but also vacating his WBC 160lb title.

If Canelo and Chavez Jr. do make it legal and bet their purses, the winner of the bet is going to have a lot of money. It’s a great deal for Chavez Jr., because he’s not getting the purse that Canelo is for this fight. By making a bet on Canelo’s purse, Chavez Jr. could walk away with a massive purse for the fight if he actually gets the money from the Golden Boy Promotions star.

That’s the real question. Will Canelo pay Chavez Jr. if he loses the fight or will be a similar situation to how Canelo said he would fight Golovkin and then didn’t do it.
I don’t think Chavez Jr. should push the issue. He might end up disappointed like Golovkin did. The last thing that Chavez Jr. needs is to get his hopes up for Canelo’s purse only to have his hopes dashed if/when Canelo fails to pay up. The betting angle is nice to help drive interest from boxing fans for buying the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight on HBO pay-per-view on May 6, but it’s hard to believe that the two fighters would actually carry out the bet.

“If he wants to do something with the bet we will do it, but let’s do it legally, let’s sign a paper,” said Chavez Jr. to fightnews.com. If we are going to do something, we’ll get it done, not just words. He (Canelo) is the first to say that a man backs his words with his balls, but I don’t see him doing that because he said he was going to fight Golovkin after the Amir Khan fight and he didn’t back up his own words, so I don’t believe in his words.”

Chavez Jr. is the underdog in this fight. He’s risking a lot by taking on Canelo, even if they don’t carry the bet out. It’s a fight that could hurt Chavez Jr’s career if he loses badly. Neither fighter looked good in their last fights. Canelo looked a little bit better beating Liam Smith than Chavez Jr. did in defeating Domink Britsch.

Canelo showed better hand speed and power, but of course, he wasn’t getting hit back by a fighter with the kind of power that Chavez Jr. possesses. The power could change everything for this fight. Canelo has never had to get hit by a big puncher for any length of time.

Alfredo Angulo was too slow to hit Canelo much, and James Kirkland was knocked out too fast. Canelo had a couple of aging fighters in Kirkand and Angulo in those fights.