PHOENIX – A father and son, Julio Cesar Chavez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., stood in front of an arena Thursday in the center of a city named for a mythical bird rising from the ashes. They’ve been here before, in different eras, yet both for the same reason.
Father fought to relaunch his career, save it from those ashes, two decades ago against Kostya Tszyu.
Now, it’s his son’s turn Friday night against Danny Jacobs at Talking Stick Arena on DAZN in a fight that was uncertain until Tuesday when a Nevada judge issued an injunction, lifting a suspension that allowed Chavez to retain his license in Arizona.
The fight is on, or at least it was late Thursday. But controversy continued to swirl at an early morning weigh-in. Chavez Jr. stepped on the scale to test his weight for a bout contracted to be at super middleweight. He realized there was no way he would make 168 pounds. He was nearly five pounds too heavy. He was due to step on the scale officially within about an hour. Those five pounds might as well have been 500. There was no magic way to shed them. Forget the sauna or some hasty road work on Phoenix streets still clogged by rush-hour traffic.
It was time to make a deal or toss the advertised fight into that ash can. Talks quickly began with Chavez leaving and re-entering the ballroom for the weigh-in repeatedly. Finally, he smiled. They had a deal, a re-negotiated contract. The fight would be at 173 pounds. Chavez made that weight, no problem. In his official trip to the scale he was at 172.7 pounds. Jacobs, a former middleweight champion moving up in weight, was at 167.9.
But the deal didn’t happen without a price. According to multiple sources at the weigh-in, Chavez Jr. agreed to pay Jacobs $1 million. According to contracts filed with the Arizona Boxing & MMA Commission, the purses for Chavez Jr. and Jacobs are $2 million each. But the redone agreement means Jacobs (35-3, 29 KOs) walks away from the 173-pound bout with $3 million and Chavez (51-3-1, 33 KOs) with $1 million.
It’s expensive, but it’s an investment in a future that still looks uncertain for Chavez. In effect, he is fighting to put some air under his wings and some distance from those ashes. It’s risky, at least it appears to be, according to the bookmakers who have made Jacobs an 18-1 favorite. But Chavez Jr. is always dangerous. He lost a one-sided decision to Sergio Martinez, yet he staged an astonishing 12th-round, nearly knocking out Martinez in wild three minutes that effectively ended Martinez’s career.
He has father’s heavy hands, which means he has a chance. His father was there Thursday at a ceremonial weigh-in outside of the arena where his career ended against an Omaha car salesman, Grover Wiley. Chavez failed to get off the stool after the fourth round in bout that had been advertised as one stop on a goodbye tour of cities. As it turned out, it was a final goodbye.
The senior Chavez had been there once before, just a few miles away at the old Veterans Memorial Coliseum on July 29, 2000. He had come to Arizona because he had been told he would not be licensed in Nevada. At the time, everybody from leading media personalities to late Senator John McCain openly questioned whether Chavez could still fight. Rather than risk a license denial in Nevada, he applied for one in Arizona. It was granted.
The card drew a capacity crowd. Tzyu overwhelmed Chavez, stopping him in the sixth round. Chavez left the arena, refusing to submit to a drug test. There were reports in The Arizona Republic that 100 DEA agents were in the crowd, looking for suspects alleged to be in the drug trade. It was a wild night. Controversial, from start to finish.
If it sounds familiar, it is. The Nevada Commission suspended Chavez Jr. for allegedly refusing a drug test in late October. That’s when Matchroom Promotions moved the card to Arizona and Chavez Jr. filed a suit, winning an injunction.
Meanwhile, controversy still sells. Promoter Eddie Hearn says ticket sales have been brisk in the couple of days since the injunction. He expects a crowd of 10,000. But more wouldn’t be a surprise to anybody who knows the Phoenix market. It’s a walk-up town. A couple of thousand showed up at Veterans Memorial Coliseum a few hours before Chavez-Tszyu nearly 20 years ago.
It could happen all over again. The geography, some of the circumstances and last name are the same. But only the son can change the result and make that bird fly.