By Chris Robinson
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. looked helpless for the first eleven and a half rounds of his clash with Argentina’s Sergio Martinez inside of the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.
It was until that epic twelfth round that Chavez finally worked his way into the fight, as he landed a barrage of punches that dropped a weary Martinez along the ropes. Unfortunately for Chavez, Martinez would rise and hang on to survive the round, killing any hope of an upset as he pulled out a decision victory.
Speaking to the media shortly after the fight, Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, who co-promotes Chavez, admitted that Martinez’s activity was a bit much for his fighter.
“He was just like befuddled for most of the fight,” Arum said of Chavez. “You talk about power punches, but [Martinez] threw 502 jabs and landed 140. In other words, Chavez’s percentages were much higher but he didn’t throw anywhere as near the number of punches.”
I then asked Arum why exactly Chavez wasn’t able to get into an offensive rhythm and he pointed to his spontaneous training camp in Las Vegas that saw him miss certain workouts as he seemed to set his own schedule, one that included several late-night sessions.
“A lot of it is the way he trains,” Arum said, obviously in disagreement with Julio’s ways. “You can’t do that. His father will tell you that, he’s got to train like a regular fighter.”
Given the drama of that frantic final round, all signs are pointing to another Martinez-Chavez clash and Arum insists that there is no need for any interim bouts at this point.
“They want to do an immediate rematch,” Arum said, speaking on behalf of several parties involved in this weekend’s event. “This fight did unbelievable business. The next fight will do even bigger business.”
