On Saturday, the beginning of March boxing begins as Top Rank Promotions and HBO after Dark will be live from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas when Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (47-1-1 with 32 KOs) squares off against Brian Vera (23-7 with 14 KOs) in a rematch from their close and slightly controversial fight from this past September. Chavez Jr. is hoping to erase the memory of the fight that a good amount of people thought he lost while Vera is hoping he can duplicate the last fight, with a little extra push at the end. Almost everyone had him winning the 1st half of that 1st fight and he let it slip away late.
Yes, Chavez Jr. won a controversial fight that he may or may not have won in the fans eyes, but it was more than that which he must make up for. He came into the fight looking like he didn’t care. He not only most likely would have missed the original weight of 160 for the postponed fight, then he knew he was going to miss the moved up weight of 168, so then he did whatever he had to do and got it raised up to 173. Chavez Jr. has been looked at as a privileged fighter, someone that is living off his father’s name and hasn’t really fought hard for anything he currently has. He will be hoping to change people’s point of views on Saturday.
Brian Vera is one of those fighters that always will fight hard, he’s a true professional, and he won’t quit. He’s the type of fighter that exposes fighters that don’t take their craft seriously. He’s 32 years old, never had a world title, but he won 4 in a row before that controversial loss in September. This fight will be fought at the 168 lbs weight limit and Vera seems to be more comfortable at 160 lbs, but these last 2 fights have been his biggest paydays, so he isn’t going to quibble about it. He knows that a lot of people thought he won the 1st fight and he’s going to go for the kill in this one. A win would be by far his biggest of his career.
There have been a lot of jokes made on Chavez Jr. and he seems like he is fully dedicated on getting into the ring a putting on a good show. He’s been ragged on from everything from the marijuana suspension and fine, to the overnight 20 lbs gain on fight nights, to not being able to make 168 for a fight that originally when made was supposed to be a 160 lbs fight. Vera, on the other hand, knows that Chavez J. may come into this fight with more motivation than ever, to him, it won’t matter because he’s the type of fighter that will go all out every time.
In the fight in September, I, along with numerous other respected boxing writers, had the fight 96-94 in the favor of Vera, however, I mentioned at the time, he left it too close and Chavez Jr. will probably get the decision. That did happen, just with a ridiculous gap by all 3 judges (98-92, 97-93, 96-94), all in the favor of Chavez.
Honestly, I don’t know what any of the judges were looking at that fight, but this time, I think there will be no judges needed, as I am going with Chavez Jr. with a 6th TKO. I just think he’s very motivated to show the fans that he’s not what people consider him, a lazy fighter with power and limited skill, who lives off his last name. Thankfully, we can all be a witness to see if he can prove us wrong, enjoy the fight.
