LOS ANGELES ? The worst part of boxing telecasts is the hideous shot of the family of the beaten.
When Manny Pacquiao was jumbling the facial composition of Miguel Cotto, HBO went up-close-and-personal with Cotto’s wife and kids, as they watched in tearful horror.
Perhaps that is why the father-son combination isn’t a big thing in boxing.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s dad was a fighter, but his uncle Roger was the champion in the family. Ray Mancini’s dad Lenny came close to a belt. Cory Spinks, son of Leon, was a unified champion. And Marvis Frazier might have been, had not his dad Joe prematurely pushed him into combat with Larry Holmes.
Ray Leonard Jr. gave up counterpunching shortly after he made that adorable TV commercial as a toddler.
And then there is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., a remarkable figure even as we can’t figure out if he is remarkable.
Chavez Jr. goes for the WBC middleweight championship at Staples Center on Saturday night against Sebastian Zbik.
Both are undefeated. Chavez is hardly undisputed.
He has the delicate, unmarked face of a New Kid On The Block, which helps his magazine-cover career but fails to endear him to the typical Mexican boxing fan, who prefers that his fighters bleed.
The essential gladiator was the original Julio Cesar Chavez.
He was 107-6-2. Incredibly, he had 86 knockouts.
The father was eerily tough and a cruel body puncher. In 1990 he was outclassed by Meldrick Taylor for 111/2 rounds and then maneuvered Taylor into a corner and did not stop throwing until referee Richard Steele stopped the fight. Few big fights have ended as dramatically.
But his career drifted downward with two ugly losses to Oscar De La Hoya. It ended in 2005 in a four-round loss to a car salesman named Grover Wiley. Chavez was 43.
Junior avenged that one in New York two years later when he knocked out Wiley, but the jury was unconvinced.
Chavez Sr. was a legend. Still is, if you judge the TV crews that chased him around a Wilshire Grand Hotel ballroom Wednesday until Chavez, finally drained from the interviews, fled with his people.
Chavez Jr. is no commando. He is a young boxer, making his way. He is 6-foot-1, much taller than dad, and he jabs.
He did root himself to the canvas for a defining 12-round decision over veteran John Duddy two years ago, finally prying loose some respect.
Now he goes for a belt.
“It’s the dream of a lifetime to be in this moment,” he said, “to fight for a championship in Los Angeles.”
The dream has been facilitated by trainer Freddie Roach, who has smoothed out Chavez. Still, Roach does not work with him often.
“It’s tough to get him out of Mexico,” Roach said, laughing. “He’s too big down there. He doesn’t have to pay for any of his speeding tickets there.
“He’s a good kid. He’s trying hard. He grew up with a lot of money. He didn’t have to do this. That is probably why you don’t have many sons who follow their fathers. Their fathers knew what they had to go through to get to that point. They don’t want their sons to go through it.”
The specter of Chavez Sr. was burdensome in other ways. For years, the proud old champ had a drinking problem. One trip to the rehab center only worked for a while.
Finally Junior persuaded him to try it again, 11 months ago.
“And before our last fight, in Mexico, he told his dad not to come to the fight,” Roach said. “He said it would just mean he would run into all the people that wanted to make him do bad things.
“Now he’s very proud of him.”
A cleaned-up Chavez is a boxing analyst on Mexican telecasts. He is 49 and, although his nose is impossibly flattened, no longer resembles a man who lived on an Everlast diet.
“I had never really talked to him until about a month ago,” Roach said. “After the Duddy fight he just nodded at me. But now he’s smiling. It’s good to see. He even says he might make a comeback. Who knows? He still weighs 147.”
Zbik, 29, never has fought outside Europe. But he has trained here for four months.
If he fares as well as the last previous German who visited Staples, he might sweep Chavez.
“It’s a good fight, but I think we’ll have too much for him,” Roach said.
And then?
“Could be Saul Alvarez. Could be Tony Margarito. But there’s one fight I think could be really big, and it would be part of that Mexico-Puerto Rico rivalry.”
Roach was talking about Miguel Cotto.
Hopefully that fight will begin past bedtime.
