One person that doesn’t seem too impressed with Gennady Golovkin’s shellacking of Martin Murray today is Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. Soon after the fight he took to Twitter to offer a sub-140 character challenge and criticism of the middleweight champion.
“Without his power he’s not that good of a boxer, I’ll bet you GGG a million dollar of the purse that I’ll knock you out if we fight” – @JCChavezJr1
Did you ever know a kid in school that did a lot of mouthing off because he was friends with a bigger kid that assured that he would never have to back up those words? Allow me to introduce Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.
First, I feel like I should point out the obvious. This tweet comes out from under the safety of Al Haymon’s skirt. With Golovkin committed to HBO and Haymon over at Showtime (and everywhere else) this fight can not be made. Young Julio can challenge Golovkin for the same reason that I can rip on Chavez Jr. from the safety of my apartment; because none of us will ever have to back any of it up.
I suppose Chavez, Jr. expects us to forget that he turned down $7 million to face Golovkin less than a year ago? In case you forgot, back when he was fighting on HBO, Bob Arum (his promoter at the time) offered him $7 million to fight GGG and a guaranteed $10 million for his next fight, should he win. Chavez Jr.’s response was to break his contract with Top Rank and running off to Al Haymon. That is as epic a duck, as I have ever come across.
Another issue that keeps Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. safely out of reach for GGG is weight class. Chavez, Jr. is next scheduled to fight at light heavyweight (186 lbs. – 204 lbs.) while Gennady Golovkin has never fought above 160. The only time Julio Jr. will ever see 160 again is as the scale spins past it toward the 200 lb. mark. Ah, maybe that’s it! Maybe he wants to fight Golovkin at light heavyweight. Now I get it!
Let’s just pretend for a minute that this fight could be made. The deal gets done, Julio gets down to 168 and Gennady agrees to fight on NBC. Julio Jr. claims that without his power, GGG is “not that good”. Is forfeiting his power going to be in the contract that Golovkin signs? For Chavez, Jr.’s sake, I would hope so.
