Trainer Harry Keitt knows his complaint will be summarily assigned to the spoiled fruit or sour grapes section.
But John Francis Duddy’s trainer swears that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. never actually officially made the weight limit of 160 pounds for the fight last Saturday night in San Antonio. Chavez won the “vacant” (and newly invented) WBC silver middleweight title by a wide unanimous decision over the plodding but plucky Irishman.
Keitt, who comes from Brooklyn and knows the difference between a balanced scale and an unbalanced one, told me this week at Gleason’s Gym that Team Duddy got the typical fast shuffle from the WBC and the Texas commission when it complained that Chavez never balanced the scale at or below 160 pounds. (Duddy weighed 159.)
“The day before the weigh-in, Chavez was wearing a rubber suit to get his weight down. First time on the scale he was over. The second time on it, he jumped on and jumped off before it balanced out. So he never made 160. Ii heard he came to the weigh in at 164 pounds.”
This photo dates back to when Jc Chavez Jr. started building his now 41-0 pro ring record. Chavez is now trained by Coach Freddie Roach. But did he really make official weight of 160 pounds before he soundly decisioned Irish John Duddy? Duddy trainer Harry Keitt says hello and hell, no.
“We squawked but the WBC wouldn’t listen, they didn’t care. Neither did the Texas guys. I’m telling you, Chavez was well over the middleweight limit at the weigh in.”
Keitt is an ex-fighter and has been around the block. So he knows the hop on, hop off quick weigh in trick when he sees it.
Me, I wasn’t there.
But I see no reason for Duddy’s handler to make this up.
