By Miguel Rivera
As revealed by conditioning coach, Angel "Memo" Heredia, former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is in top form, as he continues to get himself in the best possible physical shape of his entire career.
BoxingScene.com recently reported that Chavez Jr. was already down to 178-pounds this past Wednesday.
Chavez Jr. will return to the ring on May 6th, when he faces his Mexican rival Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The fight takes place at a catch-weight of 164.5-pounds. Chavez Jr. is coming down from the super middleweight limit of 168, while Canelo is coming up from the junior middleweight max of 154-pounds.
There were concerns that Chavez Jr. would not be capable of making the contract weight of 164.5-pounds. Chavez Jr. has not weighed that low since 2012, when he was competing as the WBC middleweight champ. He weighed 168-pounds for his December bout and over the years he's come in as high as 172.
When comparing to another recent fight, Chavez Jr. appears to be on track to make the weight. Daniel Jacobs was 174.8-pounds when the WBC weighed him 30 days prior to his title fight with Gennady Golovkin.
For the fight with Canelo, Chavez Jr. hired Hall of Fame trainer Nacho Beristain and conditioning coach Memo Heredia. They are holding the training camp at the high altitude area of the Otomi Ceremonial Center in Mexico.
Chavez Jr. aims to be around 175 at about two weeks out from the fight.
"I do not weigh myself every day because I don't believe there's a problem with the weight. At some point we are going to focus on that aspect and going through with the relevant diet, but for now we are eating well because we are working very hard. I weighed 178 pounds on Wednesday night. We go according to plan. I already weigh under 180 pounds," said Chavez Jr. to ESPN Deportes.
