By Miguel Rivera
Former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is targeting a return date of August 11.
Chavez Jr. has been out of the ring since May 2017, when he lost a twelve round unanimous decision to Mexican rival Canelo Alvarez at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The contest took place at a catch-weight of 164.5-pounds.
He's mentioning former world champion Sergio Mora and former Olympian Vanes Martirosyan as potential opponents.
Chavez Jr. lost 30 pounds in training, after entering camp at around 220 pounds.
He intends to come back at the super middleweight limit of 168.
"We are training and working to reappear on August 11. I had a sprain on my right foot but I started training well. I can not name an opponent yet, but we are talking about Sergio Mora, Vanes Martirosyan. I want to come back at 168-169 pounds, it's not a championship fight and I have a year of inactivity, I want to do this and another fight before I find a big one," Chavez Jr. said to ESPN Deportes.
Chavez Jr. fully admits that he looked terrible in the loss to Canelo, which made him reconsider the idea of ever returning.
"It was several months where I was thinking about returning or not returning and now that I did it I want it to be in the best form, to die on the line. If ever do anything again like I did with Canelo, then it's better that I retire. I would not like to shame my family if I'm not fit. I want to be active... in the last five years I have fought four times and that's just not enough," Chavez Jr. said.
"I have to prepare myself conscientiously, dedicate myself to boxing at 100 percent without any nonsense. If I did not have my mind set to become a champion again, I would not want to box again."
2023-10-21 04:03:55
