by David P. Greisman

He was loved because of his name — Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the son of the Mexican legend, the namesake of a man who was a world titleholder in three divisions and the true lineal champion in two, a Hall of Famer, an all-time great, a national icon and an inspiration to a generation of fighters. They would follow Junior because of who he was, or rather because of who his father was to them.

He was derided because of his name as well, a son who never could follow in his father’s formidable footsteps but who would be compensated well anyway, receiving opportunities and paydays that never would have been available to another boxer with the same skill level and a different bloodline. He would be afforded attention but not respect, seen as a child of privilege who would take full advantage of status that didn’t match his stature.

The reality, as it often does, lies somewhere in-between.

Chavez Jr. became more than a novelty. His stint as a world titleholder was dubious, but he was a legitimate contender, even if a limited one. He achieved more than had ever been expected of him. In more than a decade as a pro, he had demonstrated more grit and talent than many other sons who take to the ring after their famous fathers, kin who often lace up the gloves to cash in rather than doing so out of passion.

He also manipulated the system when possible and reaped the benefits of a sport that loved Senior and lusted for the money that could be made with Junior.

The title shot? That may never have come if not for the name.

Chavez Jr. could throw his weight around, figuratively and literally. He kept raising the limits for his first fight with Bryan Vera so that he could drop less for the scales and show up bigger and stronger in the ring. He could get away with it because he was a star, the person who pulled in ratings on the networks and sold tickets in arenas. Much of that, too, was because of the name.

The name wouldn’t always be enough. Nearly every fighter who is honest with himself will be held to account in the ring, facing a challenge that cannot be overcome.

The name got Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. a pay-per-view main event in a packed Las Vegas arena against middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. It would not give him victory.

The name kept Chavez around afterward. He was the A-side against Andrzej Fonfara this past Saturday, headlining on Showtime in a bout that could’ve potentially landed him a shot at the 175-pound champ, Adonis Stevenson. The name and the star power and money that came with it got Fonfara to agree to a 172-pound catch-weight.

Fonfara was too big for Chavez, but he was also much better, an experienced light heavyweight who had been in battles with those stronger and more skilled than Chavez. Fonfara won most of the first nine rounds, sent Chavez to the canvas in the ninth and made him quit in his corner afterward.

The fans in attendance booed, perhaps because they didn’t know that it was Chavez himself who asked for the bout to be over, or perhaps because they’d had enough disappointment. Junior could never be Senior, but they still wanted more from him than this.

Again, the reality lies somewhere in-between. Chavez took on a difficult challenge in Fonfara, who himself is limited but legit. Chavez was not the best at 160. He had no track record at 168 beyond a rematch win over Vera. He had hoped the 172-pound catch-weight would sap Fonfara’s strength and lessen his size advantage. Chavez had needed to worry about that, because for so long he had been the bigger man in the ring, That would no longer be the case.

But he’d also never learned the lessons he should’ve taken from the past. He thought he could manipulate the system, fight as he always had, and win as he’d done before. He was wrong.

Chavez was a scrawny 130-pound 17-year-old when he turned pro in 2003, learning on the job in lieu of an amateur career, trading punches while trading in on his father’s fame. He went through the usual designated opponents. He demonstrated flaws but lucked out on the scorecards, though that might’ve been less luck and more benefitting from his name by receiving the benefit of the doubt from the judges.

In late 2005 and early 2006 at junior welterweight and welterweight, Chavez fought to a draw and then took a majority decision over future 154-pound titleholder Carlos Molina, bouts that some observers believed Molina deserved to win. In 2008, at slightly above the junior-middleweight limit, Chavez received a split decision over Matt Vanda, then won more conclusively in their immediate rematch.

He was still young, growing into his body and as a fighter. By 2011, he was a middleweight who hadn’t done anything in the division beyond testing positive for a banned diuretic after a win over Troy Rowland, outpointing John Duddy and taking a decision over Billy Lyell.

But then Sergio Martinez was stripped of his World Boxing Council world title, a turn of events that came about because HBO didn’t want to pay for Martinez to face his mandatory challenger, Sebastian Zbik. Instead, HBO was pushing for Martinez to defend against Sergiy Dzinziruk. That’s because network executives had made a deal with Dzinziruk’s co-promoter, Gary Shaw, according to a report at the time from Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, citing anonymous sources. If the promoter helped make a unification fight between Devon Alexander and Shaw’s 140-pound titleholder, Timothy Bradley, then it would feature Dzinziruk.

Martinez gave up his belt to remain on HBO. The WBC, seeing a possibility to earn sizable sanctioning fees from the son of a Mexican legend, called for Chavez and Zbik to fight for the vacant world title, which HBO then bought. Zbik hadn’t been good enough for HBO for Martinez, but was fine for Chavez. Junior won the majority decision.

He defended it successfully three times, first taking out the overmatched Peter Manfredo Jr., then pounding away at a pair of respectable middleweights: longtime fringe contender Marco Antonio Rubio and future titleholder Andy Lee. Some criticized Chavez for the way he would drain down to make weight before coming in with a significant size advantage on fight night. He wasn’t doing anything illegal or different than what other boxers do.

Martinez ultimately wanted his world title back and sought to humble Chavez. While Chavez had a sanctioning body belt and was receiving significant paydays, Martinez was of a higher class and skill level. He out-boxed Chavez for 11 rounds. Chavez downed Martinez with hard blows in the final round. Martinez rose and traded away on an injured leg, surviving and winning the decision.

Chavez would never be at middleweight again. His first bout with Vera, a year after the loss to Martinez, had the weight limit pushed up, then again, then some more, until Chavez stepped on the scales at more than 172 pounds. The naturally smaller Vera appeared even further dwarfed in comparison but still took it to Chavez for 10 rounds, losing a controversial decision to the more established name. Chavez and Vera fought a rematch in March 2014 at the super middleweight limit; Chavez won far more convincingly.

Chavez then turned down a pay-per-view bout with Gennady Golovkin, who would’ve come up from middleweight to face him. He wasn’t happy with the contractual terms from Top Rank and wanted out of his contract. He later signed with powerful boxing adviser Al Haymon, a rival of Top Rank. The promoter sued. They later reached a settlement. Chavez was officially a Haymon fighter.

He wanted the challenge of Fonfara. His father warned against it.

Chavez Jr. needed it. He sought to be more than his name.

He still tried to take whatever advantages he could.

The 172-pound catch-weight wouldn’t make a difference.

Fonfara took Chavez’s shots and returned fire. Chavez didn’t have advantages in size and power anymore. He also didn’t have the experience to adjust, despite all of his time in the ring.

In the ninth, Fonfara was on the inside with Chavez when the fighters paused. He took a step to the side, positioning his body to set up a left hook to Chavez’s chin. The punch had a delayed effect, with Chavez’s legs freezing up beneath him. He fell to the canvas, rising soon to beat the count.

And then he quit.

After the ninth round, Chavez told trainer Joe Goossen to stop the bout. He claimed his leg was bothering him.

The boos rained down. So did beers thrown at the ring.

In a post-fight interview, Chavez claimed that he had been winning the fight. Then he said that Fonfara was too big for him, but that the result would be different if they had a rematch at 170 pounds. Another catch-weight designed to give Chavez an advantage and Fonfara a disadvantage.

He sounded like a fighter who had gotten by on privilege and didn’t like the taste of adversity. It was reminiscent of Victor Ortiz, then a junior welterweight, folding mentally and wanting out of his battle with Marcos Maidana. It ultimately took Ortiz nearly two years to regain respect, however briefly, thanks to the pitched battle he won over Andre Berto.

Chavez will get another opportunity. He would be wise to go down to super middleweight, where Carl Froch has been holding out for a big fight with Chavez in Vegas, and where Haymon has a number of names.

He’ll need to adjust. He’ll also need to show the kind of discipline that wasn’t there in some of his past training camps.

This loss wasn’t great for Chavez, of course. It wasn’t the worst thing that could happen either. The reality, as always, is somewhere in-between.

This is the time for Chavez to prove what he’s capable of. He’s shown that he’s not just a novelty, but he still has gotten away with advantages and privileges that others wouldn’t have received.

That’s helped him get opportunities and paydays from networks and promoters, though not respect from those who’ve long declined to give it.

The name will never be his own, but Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. can still try to make a name for himself.

The 10 Count

1.  The Showtime broadcast was in the middle of a replay when Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. decided to quit in his corner on Saturday night. That’s wholly excusable, given that it was showing viewers the knockdown Fonfara had scored on Chavez the previous round. And the production team did well a little later by playing the exchange of Chavez asking trainer Joe Goossen to stop the fight.

And Jim Gray did a pretty good job in his post-fight interview, asking Chavez a range of questions and following up with the right air of skepticism given some of the fighter’s answers.

Here’s what Gray asked. See if you can figure out what was missing:

- “Julio, Are you OK?”
- “You thought you won the fight?”
- “I don’t think the fight was even close. You were out-punched considerably. Why did you continue tonight to lean in with your head? What was your strategy there?”

- “How much did the layoff affect you and the rust?”
- “Different weight. [This was Gray responding to Chavez] He’s much heavier.”
-  “What do you think your future is now?”

- “What do you think would be different if you had a rematch?”
- “Your reaction to going down for the first time in your career.”
- “Your dad warned you against taking this fight but you decided to take it anyway. Was he right?”

Nine questions, covering almost everything — but not why Chavez Jr. quit.

2.  Meanwhile on HBO, Lucas Matthysse was doing a good job of hammering away at Ruslan Provodnikov with combinations and making Provodnikov miss, and then Provodnikov did what Provodnikov does and began to battle back.

It wasn’t the all-out war that people were predicting, but it was for a time the fight that Matthysse needed to fight. It didn’t benefit him to get drawn into heavy exchanges. He was winning without that.

There were still enough swings in momentum that it’s worth a second viewing, or potentially a rematch. I don’t expect a rematch, though, given the fact that so much conversation had been dedicated beforehand to the winner of Matthysse-Provodnikov facing the victor of the broadcast co-feature between Terence Crawford and Thomas Dulorme. Crawford stopped Dulorme in his first fight since leaving lightweight behind.

It would’ve been hard to think just a year ago about a fight between Matthysse and Crawford, or pretty much any other combination of Golden Boy and Top Rank fighters. But that was before Oscar De La Hoya parted ways with longtime chief executive Richard Schaefer, then made amends with longtime rival Bob Arum. Matthysse didn’t leave Golden Boy like the rest of adviser Al Haymon’s fighters and instead signed an extension with the promoter. Matthysse’s manager claims his boxer is no longer a client of Haymon’s.

Given the number of fighters Haymon has at and around 140, and his determination to stay in-house as often as possible and not to work with his top competitors, that means we’re going to see Golden Boy and Top Rank working together more often. Crawford vs. Matthysse is an appealing clash of styles.

3.  Ruslan Provodnikov, as usual, showed plenty of grit in taking punishment and making his opponent work hard and go through heavy fire in order to win.

Provodnikov posted on social media afterward about his urine being black following the fight. His face was cut from a clash of heads and swollen from all the shots. Matthysse landed 327 blows in total, according to CompuBox, with 133 being jabs and 194 being power punches.

Provodnikov has a remarkable chin to go along with his remarkable heart. I’m not certain how much longer he should demonstrate both.

There’s no shame in his losses: decision defeats to Mauricio Herrera in 2011 and in a war with Tim Bradley in 2013, then the split decision loss to Chris Algieri this year and now the majority decision loss to Matthysse. He briefly held a world title after his technical knockout of Mike Alvarado.

He’s only 31, but those with his style typically don’t last long in his sport. Even if he can still compete with the best right now — and even if there is more he can still accomplish — it might not be best for his health down the line.

That hard head of his doesn’t make it any better when his brain is crashing against it.

4.  Athletes in other, more organized sports are held accountable for their actions on and off the court/field/rink/pitch, and that includes the words they speak or type. That’s not the case in boxing.

It wasn’t the case when Floyd Mayweather Jr. referred to his father with a derogatory term for homosexual men. There was no public outcry. There was no call for accountability from his business partners. (We did get contrition from Mayweather when he ranted offensively about Manny Pacquiao years back.)

Similarly — and sadly so — I don’t expect that we’ll hear from HBO or Main Events about a tweet sent from Sergey Kovalev’s account this past weekend.

The tweet was a photo of Kovalev next to a young boy, with the light heavyweight titleholder pointing at a shirt the boy was wearing — showing the body of a boxer but the head of what appeared to be a chimpanzee.

“Adonis looks great!!!” read the tweet, which was quickly deleted.

It’s inexcusable. While these are fighters, and while I hate it when, say, the British Boxing Board of Control or the World Boxing Council comes down hard on a fighter for cursing, this is different. It’s not the kind of decorum that a company or network should want to be associated with, not in this day and age, and no matter the many ways that boxing has played off of race in the past.

Either Kovalev realized the insensitivity and didn’t care, or he didn’t realize it but should’ve known better. The tweet was clearly taken down for a reason, but there needs to be more done than that.

We would expect that of any other athlete. We would expect that from anyone in the public eye in the business world. Why should boxing be any different?

5.  Meanwhile, there was also the news last week that Main Events wouldn’t be going forward with the purse bid for a bout between Sergey Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson. Its executive, Kathy Duva, put out her reasoning, much of which made it sound like it’s once again going to be difficult for Kovalev vs. Stevenson to become a reality.

If you need to catch up, my colleagues Jake Donovan and Steve Kim covered the story in these articles:

Team Stevenson on Main Events: It Was a Publicity Stunt
https://www.boxingscene.com/team-stevenson-on-main-events-it-publicity-stunt--89791

In the end, it doesn’t matter how Main Events spins it or how accurate that spin might or might not be. They will be seen as the company that is now putting down terms for how this fight will happen — or else it won’t happen at all.

That’s unfortunate. There’s still a possibility, however remote, that Stevenson’s and Kovalev’s teams and various allegiances and agreements can be worked out. Not all is hopeless. But there’s far less reason for hope now than there was a week ago.


6.  Boxers Behaving Badly: Kelly Pavlik was taken into police custody on Saturday after an alleged brawl at a small Foo Fighters concert in Ohio, according to WKBN and the Younsgtown Vindicator. The WKBN report, citing anonymous sources, said Pavlik was “heavily intoxicated.”

Pavlik claimed in an interview with the television station that he and a friend were joking around and police mistakenly thought they were fighting. He told the newspaper they were wrestling, and that he had been drinking but was not drunk. The former middleweight champion was released on a summons to show up in court at a future date, the article said. Online court records did not yet list anything for this alleged incident as of Sunday evening.

Last year, Pavlik pleaded guilty to a pair of charges dating back to 2013 — one was to a charge of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, the other was to a count of disorderly conduct in a case stemming from Pavlik allegedly refusing to pay a taxi driver $25 home after a ride home from a bar.

In the driving while intoxicated case, Pavlik’s sentence included 12 months of probation. That sentence was handed down in June 2014 and would still be active, so it remains to be seen whether this new case could lead to Pavlik’s probation being revoked and him spending time in jail.

The 33-year-old retired in 2013 after a planned fight with Andre Ward was postponed due to Ward suffering an injury in training camp. Pavlik’s last bout was in July 2012, a decision win over Will Rosinsky. That brought his record to 40-2 with 34 knockouts.

7.  Boxing Trainers Behaving Badly: Bob Shannon — a British trainer whose clients included the Hatton brothers — is facing accusations that he sexually assaulted a girl under the age of 16, according to the Manchester Evening News.

Shannon is 59. The age of the alleged victim and the circumstances behind the case were not referenced in the article. “It is understood the charge follows an investigation into reports first received last June that a girl had been sexually assaulted,” the article said.

The trainer worked with Ricky Hatton for his comeback loss to Vyacheslav Senchenko in 2012, with Matthew Hatton from 2010 to 2012, and with domestic welterweight Denton Vassell.

8.  Boxers Behaving Badly update: Hall of Fame inductee Wilfredo Gomez will not face any criminal charges after a domestic dispute brought police to his home in Puerto Rico, according to El Nuevo Dia and the Associated Press.

Initial reports had been that Gomez had cursed at his partner and struck her in the face, but she told officers that it was a misunderstanding. She did not give police the information they needed for them to go ahead with the case, the articles said.

Gomez, 58, fought from 1974 to 1989 and held world titles at 122, 126 and 130, including the lineal championships at junior featherweight and junior lightweight. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995.

9.  Boxers and Boxing Promoters Behaving Goodly mini-roundup:

- We already knew that the combination of tremendous demand and limited space would bring record profits from ticket sales for the May 2 fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. But the same circumstances can bring a decent amount of money in from the weigh-in as well — revenue that will be going to charity.

Tickets for the May 1 weigh-in will be $10 and will allow for a more orderly event instead of people camping out and competing for seats, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. The money raised — likely more than $100,000 — will go to the Cleveland Clinic’s Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and to the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation.

- Welterweight fighter Robert Guerrero and his wife, Casey, helped out at an Arkansas event that signed up nearly 1,700 people into a bone marrow registry, according to a news release sent out last week. The registry helps gather potential donors for people suffering from leukemia or lymphoma. Casey Guerrero is a leukemia survivor.

10.  It’s been a long time since Wladimir Klitschko last fought in New York City — seven years and two months since the dreadfulness that was Klitschko’s unanimous decision over Sultan Ibragimov.

That changes this Saturday, when Klitschko defends against Bryant Jennings at Madison Square Garden.

Klitschko’s been able to make plenty of money in the years since, given his incredible popularity overseas and his lengthy championship reign at heavyweight. Still, he also should know the importance of sending his fans home happy; it was his late trainer, Emanuel Steward, who had pleaded with Klitschko during the Ibragimov fight to finish him off.

“Unless you knock him out, it's not good at all,” Steward told Klitschko before the final round of that bout. “You have to try to knock him out. Otherwise, it’s gonna be bad.”

If we don’t get a competitive outing from Jennings, then hopefully that means we get the Klitschko who demolished Kubrat Pulev last November. Otherwise, New York City’s nickname of “The City That Never Sleeps” is going to be put to the test…

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com