Is Chavez Jr. legit

Kevin lole from yahoo sports wrote an interesting article, Over nearly a half-century of promoting fights, Bob Arum has managed at one time or another to make men of all sorts sound fearsome and dangerous.

Give him a guy with a 37-0-1 record and a Hall of Fame boxer for a father and Arum would usually have you running for the hills when the kid came into a room angry.

But on Wednesday, as a fuzzy-cheeked, 37-0-1, 22-year-old with the Hall of Fame father joked with a friend only a few feet away, Arum shrugged his shoulders.

Even the greatest promoter of them all is mystified by what may become of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Chavez, who meets Matt Vanda in a rematch Saturday in the headliner of an intriguing pay-per-view card at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, literally had no amateur career. His first fight was also his first pro fight.

So while long-time boxing observers were shocked that the son of one of the game’s greatest looked so raw and so unskilled in his early days, it was chalked up to the fact that he simply had never boxed until he was 17.

Put a 17-year-old who had never picked up a bat, a ball or a glove into pro baseball and he’d look pretty out of place, too.

Chavez, though, has had the best of everything as he’s advanced in his pro career. And as he’s preparing for his 39th professional bout, it’s hard to tell if he’s going to develop into a competent pro or if he’s going to continue to drift on his father’s name.

To be sure, Arum has done well with the younger Chavez. He’s headlined a number of smaller pay-per-view shows, which have sold between 50,000 and 90,000 subscriptions. It’s not a staggering number, but it makes a profit for the small shows with commensurate budgets.

He’s a huge attraction in his native Mexico and has been a consistent ticket seller in the U.S. in areas with large Hispanic populations.

But he hasn’t beaten anyone remotely close to a contender and has struggled at times with the weak opposition he’s been hand fed. Arum said he believes the talent is there, but said he’s not sure Chavez has the desire to be a fighter the way his father did.

“So many of these kids come from the streets and these hard upbringings, and they have to fight their way out of it, and boxing is a way for them to get a better life,” Arum said. “That’s a great motivation to a lot of them. Boxing’s a way for them to get some attention, some glory. There’s no other way. It’s a way for them to make some money. Really, there’s no other way for them.

“A kid like Julio, he’s an upper middle class kid. He doesn’t know what that’s like to want something and not be able to get it. He wanted something, he had it. He was always comfortable. He doesn’t know the struggle some many of these kids had to go through. So who the hell can really say if he has that fire? You see some glimpses of talent and feel like, ‘Hey, if you just get to him and get him to work his ass off and to commit himself to being a fighter, he could be pretty good.’ But is that in his blood? Honestly, the only one who knows that is Julio.”

Vanda, 30, unquestionably has the fire that Arum isn’t sure that Chavez has. Vanda definitely doesn’t have the talent and will never be a world champion.

But he’s a tough kid who had to overcome plenty of drug problems earlier in his life to get to a point where he said Wednesday, “I can sit here and have a conversation with you.”

Vanda, who lost a split decision to Chavez in Hermosillo, Mexico, on July 12, in a bout with wild scoring, knows he was brought in to lose, both the first time and on Saturday.

“He’s the guy with the name and I’m just some punk no one has heard of,” Vanda said.

“I’m coming in there and I’m fighting Chavez and I’m fighting the judges and I’m fighting Bob Arum and the whole system. I know what it’s all about. They brought me in last time because I have a good record but they figured he’d be able to handle me and my name would look good on his record. But you got to fight the fights. You don’t just say, ‘Well, we’ll beat this guy,’ and they give you the win.

“I am going to go out and hit this little (expletive) in the mouth right at the start and let him know he’s in for it again. Basically, my plan is simple. I’m going to beat the (expletive) out of him for as long as it lasts. That’s about all.”

Chavez listens to Vanda’s words and reacts with a shrug. He’s been a target for years because of his father’s name, so he’s used to the threats. A win over Chavez Jr. is a highlight for many of these fighters, most of whom have fought on small shows and who have never been heard from before or since.

Vanda, who is 38-7 with 21 knockouts, is one of the more accomplished fighters Chavez has faced. One judge had Vanda winning the first bout 7-3 in rounds, while another had it 5-4-1 in favor of Chavez. The third, in a blatant display of homerism, had it 10-0 for Chavez.

That caused a riot to erupt as the Mexican fans littered the arena with garbage, feeling Vanda was treated unfairly.

“It was a wild scene,” Arum said. “Julio’s father was up in the stands fighting some people, and they’re throwing bottles and trash and people are booing and yelling. Usually, it happens when the hometown hero gets screwed, but this time, it was the other way around. I couldn’t believe it.”

Even Chavez concedes the 10-0 score was ludicrous. He said he was sick and feeling woozy with flu-like symptoms and said he felt the score should have been 7-3 or 6-4 in his favor.

But he plans to make a statement on Saturday now that he says he is 100 percent physically.

“He couldn’t beat me when I was so sick I could barely keep myself up,” Chavez said. “I want this fight badly to show the people. I am determined to not only win this fight, but to show everyone how much I have improved. I have worked very hard in the gym and you’re going to see in this fight what I have been doing.”

It’s getting to be about time that Chavez shows whether he’s a top-level fighter or just a hard-nosed rich kid.

Arum has had a nice little run and has made a tidy profit to this point, though ticket sales are weak for Saturday’s show, as they are for a card featuring a nifty main event between Cristian Mijares and Vic Darchinyan in Carson, Calif., on Saturday.

Arum had to get permission from the Nevada Athletic Commission on Monday to give more than the allowable number of complimentary tickets away, most of which went to military personnel at nearby Nellis Air Force Base.

He was somewhat shocked, given Chavez’ popularity in these parts and the quality of the card, but conceded it’s an impact of the economy.

And if he’s going to continue his run with Chavez, he has to find out what he has.

“I hope the kid can do it and I believe he can, but if he can’t, I’d be lying if I told you I’m shocked,” Arum said. “He’s a tough one to figure out. This fight will show us a little. If he comes back and makes a statement, that might show some pride and tell you how much he wants it. It’s going to be obvious soon enough.”