Chavez Jr. agrees to $1 million weight penalty for Golovkin fight on July 19th
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By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (48-1-1, 32 KO’s) showed how badly he wants a big pay per view fight against WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KO’s), because he’s agreed to a big $1 million weight penalty for the July 19th fight. The bout will be taking place at 168lbs, and Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions wanted the weight penalty in case Chavez Jr. came in over weight like he did in his first fight against Brian Vera last year. That’s the fight that eventually took place at 173lbs due to Chavez Jr. being too heavy to make the normal super middleweight limit.
Losing $1 million of his purse would be a huge blow to Chavez Jr., but he’ll still do really well because this fight is going to be on HBO PPV and it’s likely to bring in huge numbers. I just hope that Chavez Jr. doesn’t blow off the weight knowing that he’ll still wind up making another $4 million+ for the fight.
Both Chavez Jr. and Golovkin will be subject to the $1 million weight penalty, but it’s no big deal for Golovkin because he’s moving up in weight from 160 for this fight, and he’s never had problems making weight before. He stays in shape year round, and doesn’t overload with carbohydrates and fattening foods in between fights.
Chavez Jr’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank is confident that the Mexican star will make the weight, so he readily agreed to it. Arum feels that Chavez Jr. will be able to make the weight because he made it earlier this month in the rematch against the much lighter Brian Vera on March 1st.
“We had no objection,” Arum said to ESPN. “It goes for both guys. We know there has been a history with Chavez. But he has no problems making 168 now. He made it with ease for the Vera rematch. He wasn’t dehydrated on the scale. He wanted to prove to everybody that when he does the weight right, he can get down to 168 without any problem.”
Team Golovkin should have pushed for a rehydration limit to keep Chavez Jr. from ballooning over 190+ once he makes weight. Golovkin weighs around 170lbs after rehydrating for his fights at middleweight, but it’s a much different story for the 28-year-old Chavez Jr. He looks like a cruiserweight after rehydrates, and I can’t see any difference between him and some of the cruiserweights like Marco Huck. What Golovkin doesn’t need is to be out-weighed by over 20lbs by Chavez Jr. on July 19th.
I think if you put Chavez Jr. in the ring with a cruiserweight after he rehydrated, he’d look right at home with guys his own size. I still don’t understand why Chavez Jr. doesn’t want to move up to the cruiserweight division to fight guys his own size. But I guess being much heavier than his super middleweight opponents gives Chavez Jr. an advantage that he doesn’t want to take away.
The fight was originally supposed to be taking place on July 12th, but they moved it to July 19th due to a World Cup soccer match that will be televised on July 12th on Box Axteca in Mexico, and Chavez Jr. doesn’t want to be competing with that.
Arum will have another one of his Top Rank cards on July 19th, this one in Macao, China, and will be headlined by two-time Chinese Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming. The card will also have WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux making a title defense. The card will be televised on HBO2 during the afternoon so that U.S fans can see this fight cards during the day, and then tune in for the PPV fight between Chavez Jr. and Golovkin during the evening.
Golovkin doesn’t want to stay at 168 after he beats Chavez Jr on July 19th. This is strictly just a one off type thing. He just wants to whip Chavez Jr., and then move back down to 160.