Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. returns from another lost year to test himself against light heavyweight contender Andrzej Fonfara in the balmy outdoor setting of the Stub Hub Center in Carson, California, on Saturday night. Contested at a limit of 172 pounds, this is the latest in a series of catchweight bouts for Chavez, whose recent fights have made a mockery of both contracted limits and traditional weight classes.
Chavez, 48-1-1 (32), has always carried something with him that his legendary father and namesake never could: entitlement. As Junior was finally unwrapped from a cocoon of overprotection in his forty-fourth fight, a title scrap with the unbeaten Sebastian Zbik, he proved two things: that he was more than competent, and that he was a man brimming with, as Emerson wrote, the ?nonchalance of boys who are sure of a dinner.? You could envy or dismiss the privileged early career his name brought him, but you also couldn?t help but be impressed by the indifferent contempt he held for a tough opponent like Andy Lee, whom he mocked and then took for a trip to the woodshed.
Indifference, however, has come to undermine his recent career. Nonchalance once gave him license to act as the nonconformist, but it now hangs over his public image as a cloud of disinterest. While locked bullishly for two years in contract disputes with promoter Bob Arum, Chavez, Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, found compensation for occasional bouts with journeyman Bryan Vera at his own convenience and at weight classes of his own invention. His disdain for his opponents has now become indistinguishable from a general disregard for the traditions of the sport and for the fans that used to fill stadium bleacher seats to see him.
Chavez?s scarce ring appearances have kept his 2012 championship fight with Sergio Martinez fresh in the eyes of observers, where he revealed a different kind of contempt: refusal to quit in the face of utter domination. After eleven rounds of getting his flesh molded over his cheek and eye bones like raw tuna over sushi rice, Chavez Jr. dug in for a stunning knockdown of the champ at the eleventh hour. This moment, a moral victory, made him beloved for a new reason: not as the heir of a boxing birthright, but as the scrappy underdog.
The development of Fonfara, 26-3 (15), into a service-ready contender came the old-fashioned way, by incremental tests against fellow prospects (not all successful) and by bricking better names on the decline. Fonfara moved from Radom, Poland, to Chicago, where he?s clawed harder to rise in the fight game than his boyish face betrays. Fonfara?s chance at Chavez came from his own moral victory at the world-class level: a competitive bout in May 2014 with light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson. Fonfara came off the mat to stretch Stevenson to his first judges? decision in seven years. To the surprise of all, Fonfara plunked Stevenson down in return, ensuring even in the close but clear loss that he could claim extra credit.
The grit he showed against Stevenson will serve Fonfara well against Chavez. Fonfara?s skills are patience and timing, though not power. In his best victory to date, a reversal of fortunes with Gabriel Campillo, Fonfara found himself outworked and out-thought in a boxing shell game?miss, miss, miss?before finally finding the pea on the way to a ninth-round stoppage. Perseverance is how he found Stevenson?s chin floating in front of his left hand in the seventh round of their fight. Chavez can be outworked and outmaneuvered, and Fonfara must do both to have a chance at a playing table angled downward at him. But Fonfara walks forward on automatic, and his rote offense won?t encounter in Chavez the creativity that baffled him against Campillo. Chavez makes himself easy to find, and Fonfara will be given ample clearance to throw punches.
With Fonfara, you choose consistency over coasting; with Chavez, you choose conviction over commonness. With these measures equal, only one fighter has an exceptional trait that could be the difference. To beat Fonfara, Chavez won?t need discipline or contrition or maturity, qualities that never brought out his best. He must instead rediscover the arrogance of self-reliance?if he still can.
