Chavez Jr., Hurd & Joyce possible for Wilder-Fury card

Boxingnews24.com

By Allan Fox: IBF/WBA junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd (22-0, 15 KOs), heavyweight prospect Joe Joyce (6-0, 6 KOs) and former WBC middleweight belt holder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-3-1, 32 KOs) are all pegged as possible undercard fighters for the December 1 heavyweight clash between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

Joyce, Chavez Jr. and Hurd would be fighting in separate bouts. It’s still not official that the three will be on the card, according to Dan Rafael.

Joyce and Hurd are both good fighters. It’s still too early to know whether the 2016 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist Joyce will ever capture a world title, but he’s someone to keep an eye on. Joyce figures to be one of the top heavyweights in the division soon, and he could be a future adversary for heavyweight champions Wilder and Anthony Joshua. Hurd, 27, has already proven himself as one of the best fighters in the junior middleweight division with his recent 12 round split decision over Erislandy Lara last April in their unification fight.

”Nothing 100% yet for the #WilderFury undercard but it could include Chavez Jr. (boooooo!), @Swift_JHurd and @JoeJoyce_1. #boxing,”Rafael said on his Twitter.

Chavez Jr.is no longer a top flight fighter in boxing like he was six to seven years ago, but he is still recognizable to the casual fans. They know Chavez Jr. due to his famous father Julio Cesar Chavez. For the younger fans, they know if Chavez Jr. from his lackluster performance against Saul Canelo Alvarez in May 2017. As Rafael points out, Chavez Jr. “didn’t even try to win or come to fight.” Chavez Jr. looked like his main goal was to go 12 rounds without getting knocked out. That’s not hard to do against a fighter like Canelo, who doesn’t have the size for the middleweight or junior middleweight divisions, and he lacks the stamina to put a lot of punches together consecutively to knockout his opponents. Chavez Jr. hasn’t fought since the loss to Canelo.

For it to be worthwhile to have Chavez Jr. on the Wilder vs. Fury undercard, he would need to fight someone good that would make for an entertaining fight. Chavez Jr. has fought only two good fighters in the last five years in Andrzej Fonfara and Canelo, and he lost to both of those guys. The rest of the fighters Chavez Jr. has fought have been journeyman level guys in Marcos Reyes, Dominik Britsch and Brian Vera. Chavez Sr. said that Sergio ‘Maravilla’ Martinez was a possible option for Chavez Jr. to fight next, but that fight has now been ruled out.