Chavez Jr. Warns Canelo: This Will Be a War, It Will End in a KO!

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Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (49-2-1, 32 KOs) predicts that his HBO Pay-Per-View fight with fellow Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) will end with a knockout.

Their showdown was officially announced on Friday, for the Cinco De Mayo date of May 6th. The fight will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas or AT&T Stadium in Texas.

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Both boxers agreed on a catch-weight of 164.5-pounds. Canelo will come up from 154-pounds, where he holds the WBO junior middleweight title. And Chavez Jr. will come down from the super middleweight limit of 168-pounds. Canelo, even as a middleweight world champion, has never fought beyond a catch-weight of 155-pounds. Chavez has fought as high as 172.

Chavez Jr. returned to the ring last month and won a hard-fought ten round unanimous decision over Germany's Dominik Britsch (32-3-1, 11KOs) in Monterrey, Mexico. It was the first time that Chavez Jr. had made the super middleweight limit since 2014.

For the fight with Canelo, he will once again work side by side with strength and conditioning coach Angel 'Memo' Meredia. As far as his trainer, he might turn to one of his old coaches - either Freddie Roach or Robert Garcia.

"I can confirm that I'm going to train in Otomi, and I will be with Angel Heredia. We will talk to Freddie Roach, Roberto Garcia, they many want to help me. We will see who is more available. I'm going to Otomi for three months and I will be one hundred percent to win the fight," Chavez Jr. told ESPN Deportes.

"I need to arrive in good shape to the weigh-in ceremony, I need to be well prepared. I think I'm a stronger fighter than him. I've had to take punches and I've had harder fights, and all of that will benefit me. I've had the experience of going through wars throughout my career - ever since I started as a professional - because I did not have any amateur fights, so all of my fights have been wars... and for him... it might be the first war that he's has had in several years."

"I think this will be a fight that ends in a knockout. It will be an exciting fight due to the styles, [and the fans are] going to like it a lot."

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Comments

sterilizerSun Jan 15, 2017, 7:22 PM UTC

This fight is not going to be "sweet science." It's going to be a 5'8" guy with skill and dedication vs a 6'.1" guy who is a real head case with little discipline, but who can take a punch. This is not going to be high art in the ring but it will have drama and a little mayhem. I have to hand it to Oscar and GB. They sure know how to make money. I agree with the above. I'd also add that Chavez Jr. fights the wrong style for his physical attributes. He seems to try and use his father's fighting style only, which was to get inside and fight in the close range, because his dad was way shorter than him in height, and in arm reach he was even worse: Chavez Sr. had very short arms. So Chavez would be better suited at fighting mid to long range, to use his reach as an advantage, and then use what I consider his best skill, his body work specially the left hook to the liver that he appears to have inherited from his dad. This could be a very entertaining fight if Chavez Jr. trains like his life depends on it, with no distractions, and listens to the advice of his father, who was one of the best ATG boxers in history.

GrazSun Jan 15, 2017, 12:08 PM UTC

Chavez Jr. kind of an anomaly. He's a tough kid with the ability to have done it all. It must have been tough for him living in the great Chavez Sr shadow. If he comes in prepared I wouldn't count him out just yet in this fight. If preparation is not his focus, Canelo will stop him in the later rounds.

TravycatSun Jan 15, 2017, 10:10 AM UTC

Weird and crazy thought, but i've always wondered why these dudes with huge budgets (think Klitschko, etc) don't pay top 5 contenders to stage literal mega-fights while they're training. Crowds don't faze these guys at this point, so even with ring rust, you could still pull this for fighters that also 6 month layoffs.

billeau2Sun Jan 15, 2017, 6:45 AM UTC

dear Junior when your training team says "hit it" they mean the ginger! and not the blunts, ok?

billeau2Sun Jan 15, 2017, 6:43 AM UTC

I could never understand all the hate Junior generates... Lets talk dad....shame shame SHAME on Chavez senior for having the nerve to....did he **** someone? steal something? No, he had the nerve to want his sons to get ahead as fighters. When Junior first came on the scene I can remember when his dad was getting incoming for this decision. So the guy moves up and has a decent run...has good damn whiskers, a nice messican hook to the body pretty good follow through to the body actually...gets a few decisions that go his way and he wins a championship...not the first to do so. First off when he trains he has some ability. He has good power and attacks to the body well. Hes a big strong kid that has to keep the weight down and the desire to fight up but has shown skills. yet people have always showered the guy with haterade. Regarding this fight? Canelo will Ko him. Hes not really into fighting anymore, this is a cash out fight for him. I can almost guarantee he is saying "ok, the haters wanna hate in mom's basement, fine...Ill deliver my azz on a hate filled platter for their appetite, smoking blunts, showing up, and letting the ginger have his way with me in the ring...haters win. I bet if this guy was determined, trained hard, wanted to fight, had fans behind him, he might rough up the ginger a bit, maybe even pull a one punch knockdown like he did again. Junior can crack, he is always a danger that way. If he does catch the ginger solidly in the later rounds when the ginger slows down...but I doubt it. More like we will see a fat out of shape "here I am haters" version of junior.

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