By Thomas Gerbasi - “I haven't been 100% all the time, but my career has had lots of accomplishments,” Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. said on a recent media teleconference. “I was the first Mexican to win the middleweight world championship. I've been a world champion. I've defended my belt. In addition to that, I've beaten really great fighters. And I have a record of 48 and 2. So it's not fair to say that I haven't accomplished a lot and haven't been prepared all the time.”
He’s not exactly right on all points, but he is on at least a few, and it makes you wonder how we would perceive the 29-year-old from Culiacan if he was named Julio Cesar Smith. Would we call him a great fighter, or at least a potential great? Would we dub him a throwback fighter because he’s fought 52 times before the age of 30? Or would we even be talking about him at all if his last name wasn’t Chavez.
It’s all fine for speculation’s sake, but in the here and now, as Chavez prepares for a Saturday bout against countryman Marcos Reyes, he’s pictured by many as someone who not only won’t live up to the standard set by his father - Hall of Famer Julio Cesar Chavez - but as a young man who doesn’t even want to be in the ring, one who quit on his stool when the going got tough against Andrzej Fonfara in April. [Click Here To Read More]
He’s not exactly right on all points, but he is on at least a few, and it makes you wonder how we would perceive the 29-year-old from Culiacan if he was named Julio Cesar Smith. Would we call him a great fighter, or at least a potential great? Would we dub him a throwback fighter because he’s fought 52 times before the age of 30? Or would we even be talking about him at all if his last name wasn’t Chavez.
It’s all fine for speculation’s sake, but in the here and now, as Chavez prepares for a Saturday bout against countryman Marcos Reyes, he’s pictured by many as someone who not only won’t live up to the standard set by his father - Hall of Famer Julio Cesar Chavez - but as a young man who doesn’t even want to be in the ring, one who quit on his stool when the going got tough against Andrzej Fonfara in April. [Click Here To Read More]
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