Chavez Jr. Still Focused on Facing Jacobs, Believes Fight Will Happen

Former middleweight champion Julio César Chávez Jr. is not walking away from a scheduled showdown with fellow former champ Daniel Jacobs, according to ESPN Deportes.

Chavez Jr. has revealed that this Friday there could be an announcement that his fight with Jacobs will take place on December 20 in Phoenix, Arizona. The fight has been agreed upon for the super middleweight limit of 168-pounds.

But there is still a serious problem that hangs high above this fight. Chávez was suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission, because he rejected a doping test a few days ago in California.

Chavez Jr. has been ordered to attend a hearing with the NSAC on November 20th, in order to remove the suspension and recover his professional boxer license.

According to Chavez's side of the incident, the testing agent showed up at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood - and had no credentials to confirm his identity as someone representing VADA [Voluntary Anti-Doping Association]. 

If the NSAC rejects his side of the story, then his suspension will remain in place - and Arizona will likely honor that suspension. Middleweight contender Gabe Rosado is already waiting in the wings to step in and face Jacobs.

Chavez has not been very active in the last few years.

He lost a twelve round unanimous decision to Canelo Alvarez in May of 2017. Since then, he's only hard one round of action - with a first round blowout of Evert Bravo back in August in San Juan de los Lagos, Mexico.

Jacobs has not fought since May, when he lost a twelve round decision to Canelo in a middleweight unification clash. After the fight, Jacobs revealed that his body was no longer capable of making at the middleweight of 160 in a safe manner, and then announced his intention to pursue opportunities at 168-pounds.