It was one-war traffic when Saul “Canelo” Alvarez dominated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and come September, he’ll get a chance to become the middleweight champion again.
There was no doubt with the judges, who gave every single round to Canelo. After the fight was over, Gennady Golovkin entered the ring and their long awaited clash was officially announced for September 16.
Before the fight, Chavez (50-3-1, 32 KOs) picked Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) to beat Canelo (49-1-1, 34 KOs) if t he two of them ever faced each other.
Now after facing Canelo for twelve rounds, Chavez views the contest as being an even fight.
“It’s a tough fight, it’s a good fight. Canelo showed tonight how good he can be. I think Golovkin will be the favorite but it’s a 50-50 fight,” Chavez Jr. said.
In the fight with Golovkin, the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight belts will be at stake.
Chavez Jr. was dominated from start to finish. The contest took place at a catch-weight of 164.5-pounds. Chavez Jr. had been very inactive over the years. He says the issue of inactivity really hurt him in Saturday's fight with Canelo. He was unable to establish a rhythm or put his punches together, even when Canleo would leave himself wide open against the ropes.
The Son of a Legend had only been in action a single time since July of 2015 when he won a tough unanimous decision over Marcos Reyes. He suffered several injuries during that period, and only hit the ring last December in Mexico to secure a victory at the super middleweight limit.
“Canelo’s a great fighter, he did his job tonight and the inactivity, it hurt me here tonight. I always thought he was a good fighter. He just had better timing, a better fighter tonight. The activity helped him and [inactivity] hindered me," Chavez Jr. said.