StubHub Center, Carson, California - At a catch-weight of 173-pounds, former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (47-1-1, 32KOs) returned from over a year of inactivity, had weight struggles where the contract weight had to be raised to nearly light heavyweight on Wednesday, and won a controversial ten round unanimous decision over Bryan Vera (23-7, 14KOs). The scores were 96-94, 97-93 and 98-92.
The size difference was very clear in the first round. Chavez was taking Vera's punches much better than Vera was taking shots from Chavez. Vera was chasing, throwing punches, and looking to get in a big shot - with Chavez using a lot of movement and countering to the head and body.
Vera was outworking Chavez at times and landing some well timed shots. By ened of the third, both sides of Chavez's face were starting to swell up. The rounds were give and take as the rounds continued and Vera was much busier but Chavez was landed the harder and more accurate shots. Vera continued to outwork and actually bust up the face of Chavez in the late rounds. Chavez was looking for a big shots and he landed dozens of them, but none of them were able to hurt Vera to put him down.
At the end of the fight, most of those at ringside had Vera winning the fight - including HBO, but that didn't wouldn't matter as the judges sided with Chavez.
