By Keith Idec
Julio Cesar Chavez has indicated that his son will re-hire Freddie Roach as his head trainer following his fight Saturday night against Bryan Vera.
Mexico’s most beloved boxer will work his son’s corner Saturday night, but Chavez intimated that Roach’s return to their team would be good for the embattled ex-middleweight title-holder’s career.
“We have a lot of respect for Freddie Roach,” Chavez said during an Internet interview with Banner Promotions, which represents Vera. “Probably, after this fight Julio’s going to go back with Freddie Roach.”
Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KOs, 1 NC) hasn’t decided who’ll train him after facing Vera (23-6, 14 KOs) in their HBO “World Championship Boxing” main event at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.
Baldomir Valdinegro, one of Chavez Jr.’s longtime assistant trainers, has been his head trainer during what apparently was not an ideal training camp for what was changed this week to a 10-round light heavyweight fight against Vera. Robert Garcia — who trains Nonito Donaire, Brandon Rios and others — also has been mentioned as a potential trainer for Chavez Jr.
“I need to see how I do with this fight,” Chavez Jr. said on a conference call this week. “The guys have been working real hard in this camp and I have to see how I look and how I feel. I am not saying no to Robert Garcia or Freddie Roach. I just want to see what comes up next and we’ll go from there.”
For now, the former WBC middleweight champion is pleased that his legendary father will play an official role in his corner on Saturday night.
“The most important thing is he is going to work my corner,” said Chavez Jr., who’ll fight for the first time in more than a year when he squares off against Vera. “He has always been in my training camps, supervising it and looking over what I’m doing. But the key to all of this is he is going to be in the corner, giving instructions. Before, he would come up [to the corner from a ringside seat] yelling and screaming, and no one would know what is going on. He was doing it unprofessionally and now he is doing it professionally. He is now going to be in the corner, giving me instructions, and that is going to be very important.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
