Mexican middleweight (160 pounds) prospect Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will fight on Sept. 11 likely in Mexico, before being matched in a Dec. 4 clash with former world champion, Kelly Pavlik, at Cowboys Stadium, Top Rank Promotions CEO,Bob Arum, told FanHouse on Tuesday.
BoxingScene.com originally reported Pavlik
-Chavez plans.The 24-year-old Chavez (41-0-1, 30 knockouts) was originally targeting a bout on Sept. 25. But that date had to be moved forward since Chavez shares trainer, Freddie Roach, with seven-division titlist Manny Pacquiao who is scheduled to begin his camp workouts on Sept. 13 for an anticipated Nov. 13 ring return against Floyd Mayweather, Antonio Margarito, or Miguel Cotto, Arum said.
"Chavez's next fight is going to be on Sept. 11 because Manny Pacquiao's training camp will start in the Philippines on Sept. 13, and Freddie Roach, who trains Chavez, has to leave on that Sunday for the Philippines," said Arum. "Therefore, Freddie asked us if we could shift the fight, and we agreed. So we moved Chavez's fight from Sept. 11 to Sept. 25."
Arum said that no opponent has been chosen for Chavez as of yet.
"We're going to get the best available guy that we can get for him to fight," said Arum. "Because Chavez is going to need that going into the Pavlik fight in December. Both sides have agreed to the fight in December, and Bruce Trampler is looking for a September opponent for Chavez."
The 28-year-old Pavlik (36-2, 32 KOs) is coming off of April's unanimous decision loss to Argentinian-born southpaw Sergio Martinez (45-2-2, 24 knockouts), who dethroned him as WBO and WBC middleweight champion despite being out-weighed, 178-to-167, by the time the two fighters entered the ring.
Pavlik lost steam in the latter stages of the bout, and had considered a move to the super middlweight (168 pounds) division after having complained of having to lose too much weight to make the 160 category.
But Pavlik has since changed his mind, according to Arum.
"We gave Kelly Pavlik the option of going to 168 or staying at 160, and he said that he would rather stay at 160," said Arum. "Kelly says that, with a nutritionist, he has no problem making 160 pounds."
The next move, said Arum, was a call to Roach, who has worked one fight with Chavez.
"So then, in lining up an opponent for Pavlik, I called Freddie, and Freddie gave the go ahead for a Pavlik fight because Chavez is looking for a big fight," said Arum.
"That fight, to me, is a significant fight. It will attract a lot of attention, and I expect to do that fight in The Dallas Cowboys' Stadium," said Arum. "And we're going to load up the card, and it's going to be a great night of boxing. It will be the last big card of the year."
The son of the former multi-world champion by the same name, Chavez is coming off of last month's unanimous decision over New York's John Duddy (29-2, 18 KOs) at The Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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