Chavez, Jr. Fights Like His Old Man

By Richard Diaz
Love of Sports Correspondent

In the world of sports, the path from amateur to professional is typically well paved and easy to traverse.

It’ll eventually lead to an enormous fork, and depending on how talented an athlete is, things will get a bit tricky at that point.

The mediocre athletes will either sneak their way in and fail, or simply struggle to survive within the ranks of not-so-professional sports. After that, you’ve got the individuals who are good enough to play and survive at the professional level, but aren’t good enough to hit the pinnacle of fame and greatness. Then there are the few blessed with superiority, who inevitably have the chance to walk down the yellow brick road of fame and fortune.

With that thought in mind, the path takes on a totally different form in the world of boxing. There’s no widespread coverage of amateur or young professional fighters. Aside from a brief biography before a fight, the average fan doesn’t come to know a fighter until fame and fortune are within reach. So, while it’d be easy to wait for someone to tell us who the next big thing is, I thought it’d make more sense to show a bit of Love to an up and coming fighter with a really famous name.

If you caught our recent Old School Love tribute to Julio Cesar Chavez, you might recall the brief blurb about his kid, Julio Jr., who’s currently 36-0-1, with 29 wins coming by way of knockout.

Regardless of the fact his old man was one of the best fighters of all time, you won’t see this kid trying to spin that into a huge fight for himself. You won’t see him on some pathetic reality show where the children of famous people are given a shot at becoming the next version of their famous parent. Heck, you won’t even see him as the main event just yet.

Despite all that, Junior is indeed a tremendous fighter. He started his professional career back in 2003 and proceeded to fight at a pace reminiscent of his father’s early days. This was never more true than in 2004, when he fought 11 times and totally dominated each opponent.

Even though critics will claim he’s yet to fight a legitimate challenger, I’ve got to give some love for the kid who’s willing to take on anyone readily available. It’s not like he’s darting the competition or playing “who’s wants to be a boxer” on The Contender. He’s literally punching his way to the top, and it’s only a matter of time before Chavez becomes the main event.

So, let us be the first to jump on this kid’s bandwagon, as he’s ready to blossom into a star.

He’s got the goods and an admirable streak of anger that’ll remind you of his dad. That streak was present when he recently demolished Grover Wiley in three rounds. I say it was obvious, because Wiley just happened to be one of the last men to defeat a clearly over-the-hill Chavez, Sr. Acknowledging that before the prefight, an angry Junior brutalized Wiley before subsequently knocking him out.

So, here’s to Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. for demonstrating some sweet punching power and becoming a star before our eyes are even allowed to witness him. If this is any indication of things to come, I’d definitely suggest you jump on board now, because Chavez will soon be the next “it” guy in the sport of boxing.