By Miguel Rivera
According to former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., he is already down to 180-pounds with more than enough time to make the contracted weight of 164.5-pounds for his scheduled HBO Pay-Per-View bout with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.
The fight takes place on May 6th from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Chavez Jr.'s last ring appearance, in December, took place at the super middleweight limit of 168-pounds. Canelo saw action at junior middleweight in September, when he made 154 for his WBO world title fight with Liam Smith.
A lot of emphasis has been placed on Chavez's ability to make the contracted weight. He hasn't weighed below 167.5 pounds since competing as a middleweight in 2012.
Over the years he's struggled with his weight - with several of his fights being pushed to catch-weights of over 170 when Chavez was unable to make the limit of 168.
Back then, he was waiting until the last two weeks to drop the majority of his excess weight. This time, as he did for his fight in December, he is gradually taking off the weight, week by week.
To help him enter the ring in the best shape possible, Chavez Jr. is being trained by Hall of Fame coach Ignacio "Nacho" Beristain and he's also working with strength and conditioning coach Angel "Memo" Heredia - who helped the Mexican boxer make 168 for his last outing. It was the first time that Chavez Jr. had made 168 since 2014.
"I'm working hard from now on. I don't want to fight [the weight] later on when we are thinking about the strategy for the fight," Chavez said to ESPN Deportes. "People who know me know that training hard does not scare me. For my fourth defense of middleweight championship [against Sergio Martinez] I lost my discipline, but before that I had always done things right."