Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and the Weight of a Famous Name

The surname seems to have hung from Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.’s neck like a monstrous anvil since he first put on gloves, pulling and swaying him from one side to the other.

At times, it has worked as a great advantage, like in the early stages of his career, when his bankable moniker was chalking up wins against winless fighters. But, as time moved forward, as real challenges emerged, Chavez Jr.’s ring reality turned into what most expected: He is not, nor was he ever close to his Hall of Fame father, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr.

No one was ever confusing him for his dad, but the boxing public and ardent Mexican fight fans so wanted Junior to be even a smidgen near his legendary father that they were willing to look beyond the many flaws. Now, Chavez Jr. finds himself fighting for his boxing life this Saturday at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime, when he takes on Marcos Reyes (33-2, 24 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round super-middleweight bout at Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas.

Chavez Jr. (48-2-1, 32 KOs) is trying to erase memories of the ignominious defeat he suffered in his last outing, when he sat on his stool and refused to answer the bell for the 10th round against Andrzej Fonfara, who was perceived as a “gimme” for Chavez Jr.’s first bout under promoter Al Haymon. One left hook with 55 seconds remaining in the ninth provided further grist for the naysayers and sent Junior’s dwindling number of supporters scampering for shelter.

Fonfara’s perfectly placed punch sent Chavez Jr. to the canvas for the first time in his career, and Junior had no answer for spaghetti legs and a hazy head. It was Junior who told his corner to “stop the fight” because his leg was bothering him. Both of his eyes were badly bruised, though not as much as his character.

“I feel like I need to have a dominant performance to show my fans what I can still do,” Chavez Jr. stated recently. “I learned a lot against Fonfara. My legs gave out. I became tired. He taught me that I needed to commit more time to training, more time in the gym, and more time to strategy.”

Against Fonfara, 29-year-old Chavez was coming off a 13-month layoff trying to untangle promotional ties to Top Rank and Bob Arum, with whom he began his career, to make the move over to Haymon. There had been rumors for some time that Chavez Jr. didn’t necessarily give his full commitment to training, that he trained when he wanted to. The results of that laziness came to fruition in April against Fonfara. It forced Chavez Jr. to switch trainers, separating from veteran trainer Joe Goossen in favor of Robert Garcia for this fight.

“That was the best option for me after my last fight,” Chavez Jr. said. “He speaks Spanish. He knows the Mexican style. I have a good connection with him.”

The bottom line, however, is Junior put himself in this predicament. Another loss could relegate him to “name opponent” status as fodder for young, upcoming fighters looking to pad their résumés.

“I missed the basics of training for the last fight,” Chavez Jr. admitted. “I had such a long layoff, I needed to commit more to training, and I never did.”

It was a harsh, painful warning, one which Chavez Jr. cannot afford to suffer again -- famous surname or not.

Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.