Chavez Jr. will solve Canelo’s combination punching says Beristain

boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose: Legendary Mexican boxing trainer Ignacio Beristáin is thinking of how his fighter Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will be able to deal with the speedy combination punching of Saul “Canelo Alvarez when the two of them face each other. Beristain thinks that Chavez Jr. will be able to deal with Canelo’s combination punching and also his counter punching.

Canelo is a very good counter puncher. He likes to throw his left hook when his opponents fire off punches.

Beristain also says he’ll be retiring from boxing if Chavez Jr. pulls off a big upset and beats Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on May 6 on Cinco de Mayo at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The odds of Chavez Jr. beating Canelo are quite low. If Beristain is going to retire after 55 years as a coach, he’s probably going to need to find another fight to pick.

Chavez Jr. has well selected by Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy. They chose Chavez Jr. instead of Gennady “GGG” Golovkin or Jermall Charlo for this fight. That tells you something. It suggests that they feel fairly safe that Canelo will win the fight, which will be televised on HBO pay-per-view.

Golden Boy’s insurance policy if you will is the 164 ½ pound catch-weight that Chavez Jr. will need to make. That’s going to be murder on poor Chavez Jr. to try and take off all the weight to make the catch-weight. Chavez Jr. will probably make the weight in order to avoid the $1 million per pound weight penalty, but he’s very likely to be weight drained by the time the fight starts the next day.

“After those four fights I asked God to see Pacquiao once on the canvas and God gave me two, he was happy, but now if Julio manages to get his hand raised on day 6, I’m going to complete my happiness, such Time I could leave boxing the other day, “said Beristain to ESPN Deportes.

Beristain’s career will likely continue for a little while longer. Beristain is going to put Chavez Jr. though a tough camp to get him ready for the Canelo fight, but he’s going to have his hands full with the younger 26-year-old fighter. Chavez Jr. has been so inactive since losing to Sergio Martinez. Chavez Jr. backed off from fighting frequently after the loss to Martinez, and he’s only now starting to get his career back on track after five years.

Boxing great Muhammad Ali was able to come back to the sport after four years of inactivity to find great success, but he was a special talent. Chavez Jr. was more of a fighter that succeeded with his size advantage over his opponents. That was what made him so good at middleweight. Canelo is the same type of fighter, who gets over on being heavier than his opponents.

The difference is that Canelo is younger than Chavez Jr. and his promoters at Golden Boy has made sure that they’ve kept him busy with a lot of easy paydays since his struggles against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Erislandy Lara. Canelo lost to Mayweather and appeared to lose to Lara, but was given a controversial decision. It’s been mostly soft match-making for Canelo ever since after the Lara fight.

“People make Canelo favorite because he has been active because Julio comes from an injury to a fist and has fought little,” said Beristain. “The concern of Julio and mine is that he [Canelo] is a fighter that dominates with combinations, fast and counter punching, but I think Julio has the ability to solve that problem. This fight is going to be a great fight,” said Beristain.