Goossen on Chavez Jr: No Weight Issues, Working Hard

By Miguel Rivera

Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is working hard for his upcoming fight with Andrzej Fonfara on April 18th at the StubHub Center in Carson California.

His new trainer, Joe Goossen is impressed with the hard work that he's putting forth in the gym. Chavez has often being criticized for being lazy in camp and his past behavior caused a lot of friction with former trainer Freddie Roach of the Wild Card Gym.

The fight with Fonfara is taking place at 172-pounds, very close to the light heavyweight limit. Chavez has been inactive for over a year and he admits that he's more of a super middleweight while Fonfara has been at 175 for a few years.

"Well, first off, Julio is a well-rounded fighter.  I mean, we've seen him box before.  And we've seen him pressure before.  I don't want to tip my hand on what we're going to do but we have studied the films.  We've talked about the films of Andrzej.  And of course, we're developing a game plan.  I think the weight -- basically, 172 is very close to 68.  It's a weight he's fought at before. So I don’t think the weight is going to be a problem at all.  The way he's working right now and the weight he's at right now, I think we're going to be able to hit the 172 mark quite easily," Goossen said.

"But, again, as far as what skills he has that we're going to bring to the table is something that I think is private to us.  But Julio Jr. is a multi-talented fighter.  Just watching him spar yesterday, when we needed a box, he did it beautifully.  And when we needed pressure in a few rounds, he pulled it off exactly how I like it.  So I'm very confident that whatever style we bring and game plan we bring, we're going to be successful with it."