Uninspired Chavez Jr. Turns in a Performance With No Impression

3
1225

Chavez Jr-Chavez Sr 2Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. attempted to rectify his last loss by showing us something against Marcos Reyes in the feature bout on ShowTime Championship Boxing in front of a live crowd in El Paso, Texas at the Don Haskins Convention Center. Chavez Jr. was already in a hole based on his last loss to Andrzej Fonfara, but what made it worse was the fact that the son of boxing royalty didn’t make weight at Friday’s weigh-ins.

 

It is hard to call Chavez Jr.’s performance great, but he did some impressive things in the ring. In almost every single early round, Reyes started off well and landed a few significant shots, while Chavez Jr. sat idle, bidding his time. But the round would end with Chavez Jr. doing enough damage to more than likely steal the round.

 

Reyes utilized a solid uppercut, but Chavez Jr. was brilliant with the body blows. The problem was Reyes inability to keep constant pressure on Chavez Jr. Chavez Jr.’s problem was that he paced himself too much to make anything really happen or put a complete performance together.

 

The fight broke down like this: Chavez Jr. was the same lazy, spoiled fat kid he has always been (I’m being as politically correct as I can be anymore with him), but because he outweighed, outsized, and was more OUT of breathe he was forced to make his punches count with less time on the clock.

 

In other words, Chavez Jr. wasn’t physically strong enough in the stamina department to keep a relentless pace mixed with his really impressive offensive output, so instead he took a more laidback approach through the majority of rounds. Then, once it suited him and he was able to work the clock without having an aneurysm stemming from exhaustion, Chavez unleashed a brutal assault on his opponent that was more about his size advantage than anything. Add to that advantage Chavez’s already thudding power/delivery, and a fine-tuned offensive output courtesy of his time with Robert Garcia, no doubt, and you had a guy in Reyes that was a circumstantial loser before the opening bell sounded.

 

Again, that’s not to say Reyes was incapable of making things happen for himself, but Reyes let the son of a Mexican legend off the hook for far too long in a given round.

 

A firefight broke out in round 6 and it was a testament to Reyes’ heart and a display of how lazy Chavez Jr. really was being because if Chavez Jr. was even a little conditioned he would’ve kept up the onslaught and got his undersized opponent out of there much earlier, and certainly when Reyes decided to go toe-to-toe.

 

Reyes’ only chance was to keep a heavy output, but he was far too reserved in the final rounds because of his decline in energy level. What made matters worse was the referee took a point in the 9th from Reyes for a foul that was never previously warned. The point was taken for an “intentional head-butt,” but it did not appear intentional, although it caused a very serious injury.

 

Chavez Jr. made no effort to close the show, nor did he even attempt to ramp up his performance in any minute way. In fact, Chavez Jr. showed little to no change for the better from his last fight. The only positive I could see was his ability to exercise his offense at very specific times, similar to the way he did against Andy Lee when they fought in El Paso years ago, but he was in better shape back then.

 

The judges scored the fight 97-92, 98-91, and 96-93 for Chavez Jr., who wins the unanimous decision victory in his first fight back from the loss. Chavez complained about a left-hand injury after the fight to put the finishing touches on a truly uninspiring performance.