By Michele Emrick
The weight limit for the upcoming Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Brian Vera fight has been increased to 173 pounds in a rather bizarre move clearly made to accommodate Chavez Jr.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Brian Vera will take place this Saturday at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., in a fight that has had more than its share of issues involving the weight limit. Additionally, the fight will be reduced from 12 to 10-rounds, at the insistence of Vera, after the weight limit was increased.
Originally, the fight was to be contested at 162 pounds, and go for 12 rounds. However, after several delays, supposedly due to “injury,” the Chavez camp began to negotiate the weight up, finally appearing to settle in at 168 pounds.
However, earlier this week Chavez’s father, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., who is serving as his son’s head trainer, told the media that the fight had been moved up to 173 pounds. This was surprising news to all those present, including the promoters of the fight.
It came as no surprise that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was having trouble making 168, considering his difficulty in making weight when he was competing at middleweight. So on Wednesday, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and Vera’s promoter Artie Pelullo had a meeting to discuss increasing the weight limit. Also discussed was the increase in money that would be paid to Vera’s side for going through the additional trouble of bending over backwards to accommodate Chavez Jr.
In a strange move, following the striking of a deal, they declined to announce what the new limit would be. Instead, they would only say what the agreed to weight is AFTER the fighter weigh in on Friday.
Bob Arum, on Wednesday, only said “Wait for the weight.”
Admitting that the situation was unusual, Arum just said that the curiosity over the weight just adds to the promotion of the fight.
“I know it’s something bizarre, but we’re doing it because we had this (weight) issue and we’re making the issue a character in the promotion of the event,” Arum said.
However, ESPN.com is reporting that the weight agreed on will be 173 pounds.
What happens if Chavez Jr. comes in over that weight? Well, it is likely that will be OK too, with more money being given over to Vera and his team.
Originally, this fight was to take place on Sept. 7, but was delayed when it was claimed that Chavez suffered a cut in sparring. There was doubt about that being the actual cause as Vera said he believed the more likely reason was that Chavez was “fat.”
The shame in all of this is that it is just another black eye on a sport that should be riding a high after the huge weekend where Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez gave the sport a much needed increase in publicity. Instead, that fight had to deal with the C.J. Ross scoring controversy.
Now, to pile on, we get his fiasco where Bob Arum for some reason thinks it is fun to make weigh-ins a “guess” for fans. Of course, we are not stupid enough to fall for that, and instead know that in reality, because of the lack of professionalism by Chavez, he is being given a pass, and will apparently be able to come in at whatever weight he wants to.
Brian Vera also is a big loser here, despite apparently getting paid extra for his trouble. Already, the size difference was going to be an issue going into the fight, and now it will only be more clear as he was already on the agreed to weight, while his opponent will not have to make the sacrifice of going through a weight cut.
But being the warrior he is, there was no way he was going to turn down this opportunity, especially considering this a chance to add the biggest name yet to his resume.
