Chavez Jr. is Roach's Latest Wild Card -- SecondsOut

By Steve Kim, SecondsOut.com

It was made official on Tuesday afternoon at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles that renowned trainer Freddie Roach would take over the training duties for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who faces John Duddy in San Antonio, Texas, on June 26th as the headliner on “Latin Fury 15.” Chavez Jr. will report to the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood on Saturday for his first official day under the watchful eye of Roach.

It’s no secret that Junior’s work ethic has never been described as “Spartan,” but he says that this move represents a new chapter in his career.

"I came here very willing to do whatever I need to do, whatever they ask me to do; that’s what I have to do. Work," said Chavez, through Top Rank publicist Ricardo Jimenez. His own promoter, Bob Arum, has labeled him “lazy,” to which Junior responded, "I always believed I needed a real leader to help me out. I haven’t had that in my camp. I know I have that now."

Roach has a star-studded roster, from Manny Pacquiao on down and the Wild Card is the home to a multitude of world-class prizefighters. And it’s a highly competitive atmosphere, where the weak will not survive. Here, Chavez Jr. isn’t the son of boxing royalty; as of now, he’s just another relatively unproven fighter. He’s basically Vanes Martirosyan with a better boxer lineage.

"We think Chavez is enormously talented and we have to get somebody to bring out that talent and discipline. And there’s nobody better than Freddie," stated Arum, who took Chavez to the Wild Card a couple of months ago. He admits to being distressed over Chavez’s rather desultory dedication to the sport. "Sure, of course, all of us [are]."

The crime isn’t that Junior is not the equal of his father (very few ever will be at the level of the great “JC Superstar”); it’s that he’s not even reaching his own ceiling as a fighter, which has seemingly turned off more than a few Mexican fans. But perhaps, he will never have the desire of the original Julio Cesar Chavez. After all, he was a child of privilege, one that was born with a silver mouthpiece. How could he have ever had the hunger and drive of his father growing up?

As former major league pitcher Dean Chance (now, incidentally, president of fringe alphabet organization, the IBA) once famously noted, "He was born on third base, but he thinks he hit a triple." At times, that would apply to Chavez.

Arum admits, "Chavez comes from a wealthy family. Marvin Hagler, one of my great fighters, said rich guys who sleep in silk pajamas don’t like to get up in the morning and do roadwork." And judging by the softness in his body in his most recent fights, he looks like a guy who hasn’t been hitting the pavement in the early hours. Last year, the physical conditioners from Velocity- best known for working with Miguel Cotto- were summoned to Big Bear to work with Junior, only to be jettisoned from the mountain a few weeks later. The reason?

It seemed as though they were working Junior just a bit too hard for his liking.

You just wonder; is Chavez boxing because he wants to or because he’s expected to? At times, he does remind one of that trust-fund baby incapable of holding any real responsibility in the real world, yet, will always be bailed out because of who he is. In other sports, it’s not unusual to see kids who come from wealth follow in the footsteps of their fathers. But in boxing, is it even possible?

As you ask this question to Roach, he takes a long pause before saying," I would say mostly no. But the thing is, in some cases, they have the genes of a fighter. Like the Mayweathers and so forth, Floyd Jr. wasn’t brought up as hard as Roger and Floyd Sr. were. He had a little more comfortable of a life because of the success of his uncle, of course. So it’s not impossible, but it’s unusual."

But there’s a key difference here; Floyd Jr., for all his bombast, has an obvious thirst and drive for the sport, along with incredible, natural, God-given ability. Chavez isn’t a bad fighter; he has a pretty good offensive skill set and a good beard. But that’s offset by shoddy conditioning, which has limited his effectiveness in certain fights.

But what happens the first few days when he is pushed to the brink in the gym, when it’s no longer his call on when to call it quits? And can his body take the ballistic training of Roach’s strength-and-training guru, Alex Ariza, in the early mornings? This will be a bit of culture shock for Chavez.

Roach says simply, "[If] he doesn’t work hard, he’ll probably go home." The trainer says he won’t even have to send him on his way. "I’ll give him an opportunity to show me he’s willing to change and work. And I’m going to push him, push him, push him and if he doesn’t respond, he’ll go home on his own. I hear he’s that type of person. But the thing is, if he does have a work ethic, I’ll sit down and talk with him. I’ll give him a chance. But he’s going to get one chance and that’s it."

Roach’s bottom line is simple, "I don’t have time; I have a lot of good fighters that want to work, so I don’t have time to be baby-sitting anybody."

Chavez should have some inkling of what to expect as he dropped by the Wild Card to see Pacquiao perform his daily duties with Roach, before “Pac-Man” faced Joshua Clottey in March. "When he [Chavez] saw Manny work out, he said we were a little crazy. But he saw how I work my fighters and how I push them and so forth. So I’m hoping he sees that as a challenge to him."

The days of being surrounded by yes-men are over, for now. The young man is no longer the boss of his own training.

"It was my camp," Chavez admitted. "I told them what I wanted to do. It was my family and it’s not the same when it’s your family. You tell them what to do; they’re not going to tell me no."

He says later, "It’s a great opportunity for me. You see what he’s done with fighters; he makes them better than they are. I’m hoping he’ll do that for me. He’ll make me work and I can become the best that I can become."

ENABLING

As is usually the case with Chavez Jr., or any fighter handled by Fernando Beltran, the fighter was once again tardy to the press conference on Tuesday, which had Arum a bit antsy. This after the Monday afternoon presser in San Antonio was scrapped because Chavez had some immigration issues.

"We flew down; we got picked up at the airport. We were told then that he wasn’t coming and that there wouldn’t be a press conference," said a rather annoyed Craig Hamilton, who manages Duddy. "So John and I went over and visited the Alamo."

Again, Chavez gets away with it, because he’s allowed to. Meanwhile, everyone else who was scheduled to be there showed up dutifully.

"It’s a ton of disrespect; I mean, look, it’s disrespect to John, yes, but this is particularly disrespectful to Top Rank," Hamilton pointed out. "When you take a fight like this, for example, John has a contract; he’s going to get paid either way. But we want the promoter to succeed. So you go to press conferences, we cross the country. In two days, we traveled to San Antonio, to Los Angeles, back to New York. We’re trying to help the promotion. It’s disrespectful to the press people who plan a day, the Mexican fans- he has a ton of them. It’s disrespectful to them. So yeah, it’s disrespectful and it’s not excusable. You know if you had a visa problem two days ago, you had one a month ago.

"So I don’t listen to that. I manage a fighter; you take care of the business. That’s what your job is. My job is to make sure if he has a visa problem- Duddy’s not a naturalized citizen- there’s any issue, we got it taken care of well ahead of when you have to," continued Hamilton.

As the press conference finally began (about a half-hour late), Arum announced that Chavez would be meeting with immigration attorney Frank Ronzio (who once managed David Kamau) to work out all his issues after he met with the media. He said he advised his fighter to stay out of Arizona for the time being.

I think he was being serious.

TOP BARRERA

Marco Antonio Barrera, who waged a legendary trilogy with Erik Morales (long a Top Rank stalwart) is on “Latin Fury 15’.” Seeing Barrera on a Top Rank show is like seeing Derek Jeter in a Boston Red Sox uniform.

"Barrera’s always been the enemy. He’s always been on the opposite side. I may still root for the other guy," Arum joked.

Barrera, according to the veteran promoter, signed a five-fight deal with Beltran (who once co-promoted “El Terrible” with Top Rank).

OK, don’t want to give Arum any ideas, but is there any possibility of Barrera-Morales IV?

"Morales called me yesterday at the office to say, ’I hear Bob’s been looking for me.’ Which I wasn’t. But he left a number for me to call."

Uh-oh.

LATIN FURY FLURRIES

This show will take place at the Alamodome, which has a rich boxing history. Pernell Whitaker faced Chavez here in September of 1993, in front of over 60,000 fans. Oscar De La Hoya knocked out Kamau several years later and Pacquiao knocked out Barrera here in 2003...Also on this card is a bout between bantamweights Eric Morel and Jorge Arce and featherweight Salvador Sanchez III...Adailton De Jesus is slated to take on Barrera...This pay-per-view is priced at $39.95...Say what you will, but the recently retired John Ruiz had himself a pretty good career. He certainly got the most out of his ability...Is there any question that LeBron James is the best player in the NBA, and might be so for another decade?...Although Kevin Durant will have something to say about that...Any questions or comments can be directed to k9kim@yahoo.com and you can follow me at www.twitter.com. You can now become a Facebook fan of Maxboxing at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing

Source: secondsout.com