By Michael Marley
Pleased as punch.
That’s an accurate way to describe Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. promoter Bob Arum’s Sunday brunch mood in Los Angeles, where on Saturday night the 25 year old son of Mexico’s great ring legend did rise to the occasion with a thin but convincing WBC middleweight title victory over light hitting champion, Sebasatian Zbik.
And Arum was quick to give accolades to two familiar faces from Pacland, Coach Freddie Roach and conditioning guru Alex Ariza, for their work in guiding the now 43-0-1, “Rising Son from Culiacan, Sinaloa” to the majority decision points triumph at the Staples Center (HBO).
Arum first addressed Roach’s adroit, never panicky work with Chavez.
“I’m no Johnny Come Lately on this,” the 79 year old Arum said. “I’ve been saying this for a long time, saying that Freddie is the best trainer in boxing.
“Freddie’s got a great ability in communicating with a fighter and he’s got a great eye in spotting talent in a fighter. I would take any boxing prospect to Freddie, to work with him in the great atmosphere of his Wild Card Gym, provided that Freddie has time for that prospect."
I opined that Roach has established himself not only as a perennial "Trainer of the Year" but as the heir to the Angelo Dundee mantle as the sport's top tutor.
Arum, surprisingly, disagreed.
"They're different. Angelo was the great motivator, the great cornerman but Freddie is the great teacher. You saw it with Manny (Pacquiao), you see it with young Chavez now.
"The only guy I can really compare Freddie to in terms of teaching was his own mentor, the late, great Eddie Futch."
“As for Alex, look Amir Khan was smart to engage Freddie and Alex together because they make a great combination,” Arum said. “I think Alex has done a helluva job with Chavez. He and Freddie make for a great combination.”
I asked Arum about persistent rumors about a Sept. 13 Vicious Victor Ortiz-Floyd Mayweather fight will take place.
“I had 11 years with Floyd and I say that fight won’t happen. For 11 years, I had problems getting him to consider a southpaw opponent. He refused to consider any southpaw except one and that was when he fought Zab Judah.”
(Mayweather also fought and beat lefthanders Chop Chop Corley and Sharmba Mitchell but, if memory serves, this was after Floyd split the sheets with Top Rank.)
For those of you living in a remove, no Internet access cave, Khan will fight Brooklyn’s bad boy now reformed Judah on July 23 in Las Vegas.
And the subtext to Arum’s disbelief on Ortiz-Mayweather is, of course, that Pacquiao is a southpaw and one with a savage, unpredictable style of attack.
Btw, I scored the fight for Chavez 116-113.
The official scores were a misplaced 114-114 and verdicts for Chavez by two and four points.
If Zbik had any zing on his punches, the outcome could’ve been reversed.
But Zbik didn’t and it wasn’t and, trust me, Uncle Bob’s eggs were “over easy” on this summer Sunday.