By Miguel Rivera
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (49-2-1, 32 KOs) expects to have the fans on his side on May 6th, when he faces fellow Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs).
For weeks the two sides were negotiating the terms and finally reached an agreement on Friday. The fight will be carried by HBO Pay-Per-View, and the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas or AT&T Stadium in Texas will play host.
The fight will take place at a catch-weight of 164.5-pounds. Canelo will come up from 154-pounds, where he holds the WBO junior middleweight title. And Chavez Jr. will come down from the super middleweight limit of 168-pounds.
Chavez Jr. believes Canelo has lost the love of the Mexican boxing fans because of the entire situation with middleweight king Gennady Golovkin.
For most of 2016, Golovkin and his team were trying to get Canelo in the ring. Canelo, who held the middleweight title at the time, vowed to make a mandatory defense against Golovkin last fall. He instead vacated his world title and then dropped down to junior middleweight.
"The fight is important for Mexican boxing, both for him and for me. The people are interested in a good fight and two Mexicans who draw attention worldwide is something very important for boxing, in addition to a sports rivalry that's gone on for a long time and finally we will fight," Chavez Jr. told ESPN Deportes.
"He lost a lot of affection from the fans. He does have a lot of popularity, but at the same time he has very little affection from the fans - because he lost them when he turned away from Golovkin and when he turned away from the best fighters - which is something that I've never done... it's worth more to fight quality than quantity... the quality of the people [you are fighting]. And the affection of the people is with me. When we get up there in the ring - we will see what happens."
