by Keith Idec

Bryan Vera is more than willing to sign another contract to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

After what he endured in the months leading up to their fight Saturday night, however, Vera said that contract cannot allow Chavez to get away with the unprofessional behavior that was accepted prior to their first fight.

“We’ve got to make sure there are stipulations in the contract, before we sign everything, that there’s real punishment,” Vera said on a conference call Wednesday. “Not these little punishments that he can afford, like what he had last time. We have to put real punishment [in the contract], to where he’s [forced] to not do these things.”

The weight limit for what ultimately was a light heavyweight bout between Vera (23-7, 14 KOs), of Austin, Texas, and Mexico’s Chavez (47-1-1, 32 KOs, 1 NC) was changed multiple times before Vera lost a controversial 10-round unanimous decision at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. The last weight switch officially was made just two days before Friday’s weigh-in, when it became clear Chavez wouldn’t even try to come close to the renegotiated 168-pound limit.

Chavez paid a financial penalty to Vera, who agreed to a 173-pound limit instead of walking away from a six-figure payday for their HBO “World Championship Boxing” main event. Nevertheless, Vera’s handlers don’t think there was enough incentive for the former WBC middleweight champion to genuinely try to make weight.

“As far as the weight is concerned, I think the next time we have to put it in the contract that if he doesn’t make weight it’s going to cost him a half-a-million dollars,” said Ronnie Shields, Vera’s trainer. “Simple as that. I think that’s definitely fair. This guy walks away with a lot of money, but he tries to dictate everything. He dictated the weight, he dictated the cancelations and all of this stuff.

“Bryan, he just had to sit back and wait until the fight happened. And when the fight did happen, Bryan did what he was supposed to do and he won the fight. So I think if this next fight comes up, they have to abide by the rules or there’s not going to be a fight.”

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.