By Steve Kim
This past weekend at the Don Haskins Convention Center in El Paso, Texas, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. struggled to get past Marcos Reyes. Facing a much smaller opponent he failed to stop the career middleweight. At the end of the night, a shower of boos could be heard from the largely Mexican audience as Chavez's hands were raised in victory.
Freddie Roach, who trained Chavez Jr. during his most productive run as a fighter, is still an interested observer of this career.
"I like Chavez a lot as a friend and he just needs to train. I mean, if he trained and got in shape he'd be a good fighter," said Roach on Tuesday afternoon at his Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California.
"I think he could actually fight 'Triple G' (Gennady Golovkin) if he got in shape but we haven't seen that in awhile."
This past fight was originally set at the super middleweight limit of 168 pounds and then moved to 170 pounds - and Chavez Jr. still failed to make weight.
When asked if Chavez Jr. still wants to do this, Roach answered - "Well since the (Sergio) Martinez fight and his last fights he hasn't impressed me too much."
The past few years Chavez Jr. has employed Roach, Joe Goossen and now Robert Garcia but the bottom line is that it's not about the guy who puts out the stool in the corner but the guy sitting on it in-between rounds.
"You can have the best guys in the world but the thing is you can't make them fight," the respected trainer pointed out.
"Lets face it, we sit down during the round and watch them. So he's the one that needs to decide if he really wants to be a fighter or not. I mean, he had the excuses that nobody ever trained him hard so is Garcia going to be fired, also?"
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.