By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse
Promoter Bob Arum considers last Saturday night's Latin Fury 15 pay per view event at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, a success.
In the main event, 24-year-old Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 knockouts) ended a seven-month ring absence with his middleweight (160 pounds) unanimous decision victory over John Duddy (29-2, 18 KOs) -- this, under the watchful eyes of three-time Trainer of the Year, Freddie Roach, assistant trainer, Alex Ariza, and, his father, former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
On the undercard, 36-year-old, five-time former world champion and Mexican great, Marco Antonio Barrera (66-7, 43 KOs), ended a 15-month layoff with his lightweight (135 pounds) unanimous decision over Brazil's Adailton De Jesus (26-5, 21 KOs).
In this, the first of a two-part Q&A series, Arum discusses the future of Chavez after having spent his first, full training camp with Roach.
In the other forthcoming Q&A, Arum will discuss Barrera's future, Arum's relationship with Roach, and the potential for a bout between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao coming to fruition.
FanHouse: Well, there was another great showing for Top Rank Promotions, huh?
Bob Arum: Yeah, it was great. Terrific.
And Julio Cesar Chavez looked terrific?
Yeah, he was. He was. That was quite an improvement.
That one point in the fight where he was hurt in the sixth round, but yet, settled in and got back into a groove -- what do you attribute that to?
I know what it was. It was the conditioning of Freddie Roach. You know, if you're well conditioned, and you're really well conditioned, you can take a shot and come back much better than if you're not conditioned. Your recovery time is better.
No problems like that with him this time, huh?
You know, every fight that we've had with Julio Cesar Chavez up until now, I mean, every fight, there has been a problem. If it's not about making weight, and all, then it's about all of this other stuff. But with the assistant trainer, Alex Ariza, he showed the kid how to do it right this time.
How do you mean?
He got the kid's weight down and then he even got to drink water and so forth the day of the weigh in. He's never had it so easy making weight. He could probably go down to 154 they say. You know, these old time trainers don't know what they're doing.
Here, with Freddie and Alex, they work them so hard, that instead of cutting down on their food, they can eat. They have to eat. It's like Manny Pacquiao. He was eating more -- like 6,000 calories a day.
In order, what are the fights that you would seek next for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.?
Well, I want to make fights that are big fights for him. I don't know if [WBA junior middleweight champ] Miguel Cotto will be his next fight or not.
They say that Chavez may be ready to come all the way down to 154. That's what he would have to do to fight Cotto. So, we'll just have to see, you know?
Isn't Chavez also a mandatory now for WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, and is that a consideration?
With a little more experience, I think that he would be a candidate for a fighter like Martinez, who has a lot of skills. But I don't think that Chavez is quite ready for him now. He's not been with Freddie Roach long enough. He would have to spend a lot more time with Freddie Roach.
But right now, he's only been with Freddie Roach for the past four weeks.
Will he continue training with Freddie Roach then?
Yep. That's what he's going to do. He's going to rent an apartment in Los Angeles and then you'll see that he can be close to Freddie and the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, Calif.
And you'll see that because of that, he'll get better and better and better and better.
What are some of the other options for Julio Cesar Chavez?
Well, if he wants to at 160, Chavez could consider maybe going after this guy who is there as the interim WBC middleweight champion Sebastian Zbik [29-0, 10 KOs] of Germany, who might be willing to fight him. He's the interim WBC champion from Europe.
That wold be a very, very good fight for him maybe in Mexico City in September.
So if you were to say what your next move would be, would it be to fight another tune up against say, a 16-7 fighter or so at middleweight, or junior middleweight to get him ready for another big name opponent?
No, no. Chavez would only fight top fighters. No 16-7 fighters if that's what you said. No. He would fight a guy like Sebastian Zbik, who is the interim middleweight champion, or other guys. He would certainly be fighting somebody like that.
So that would be maybe the next fight or would it be a Miguel Cotto?
Or maybe right to Cotto.
Wow, really?
In other words, I had dinner with Freddie Roach last night, after the fight, and you know, I didn't want to press Freddie too hard, because we were relaxing and being social. But the subject came up. But I will certainly talk to Freddie more about it this week.
His two uncles having been his trainers prior to Freddie Roach and Alex Ariza, has translation been an issue in the corner?
The Chavez kid understands English as well as you or me. When his mother broke up with his father, Julio Sr., she moved the family to California, so he's spent a lot of time there and in the United States. So he understands English perfectly.
If you remember the conference call, they were asking him questions in English and he was answering in Spanish. But no one was having to translate the questions from English. And he can speak some English. He's very reluctant to speak English because he doesn't feel sure of himself.
But that will come, and he can certainly speak enough English to communicate with Freddie. And Alex Ariza is from Colombia, and he knows how to communicate in any language. The kid is going to be a star with the two of them working with him. That, I have no doubt about.
Another feather in the cap of trainer Freddie Roach?
Freddie Roach is the greatest trainer in the world. Julio Cesar Chavez is a work in progress. That being said, he's only had four weeks with Freddie Roach. If he hadn't been with Freddie Roach, Duddy would have destroyed him.
So, I see a huge, huge upside in Chavez. He's exhuberant about Freddie and about the work ethic. He became not only a different fighter but also a different man. He wants to work all the time and wants to learn.
All of the essentials that you want to see in the kid that has talent. We saw it in Manny Pacquiao the same way. There are a lot of parallels there.
How so?
Manny just had an interview with a Philippines newspaper and he talked about how this all started. Bruce Trampler, our matchmaker, said that Julio Cesar would not follow directions.
So we all knew that we had to get him a really good, top notch trainer, and, if possible, Freddie Roach. So Bruce brought Chavez to a Manny Pacquiao training session.
And the kid's eyes bugged out because he had never seen anything like it. And after the training session, Pacquiao sat down with him and they talked for about 15 minutes or so.
And Manny told him that the way that his career could really blossom is that if he signed on to have Freddie Roach train him and for Alex Ariza to condition him.
And then Chavez told Fernando and me that that's what he wanted to do. And we didn't know how long that it would last. But he had seen what it took, and, boy, what a willing eager pupil he was.
He's done everything that he's been asked.
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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