SAN ANTONIO – What may well prove to be the most suspenseful moment of Saturday’s Chavez Jr.-Vera II card happened a day early when, framed by a clever prop, Mexico’s former middleweight titlist “Son of the Legend” Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. made the super middleweight limit by a half pound. In so doing, Chavez demonstrated an often-absent professionalism, and returned the need to prove one’s professional merits to Austinite Bryan Vera’s corner.
Saturday’s fight, a rematch of Chavez’s controversial decision win in September, may well turn out to be a savage thrashing of a Texan in Texas. Unless Vera’s approach to defending has improved more than Chavez’s approach to weightloss, in the last five months, Vera is likely to need his corner’s help both early and late.
Early Friday afternoon at a makeshift stage outside the host venue Alamodome’s south entrance, an apparently motivated Chavez (47-1-1, 32 KOs) made weight easily, weighing 167 1/2 pounds and confirming, officially, an easy-make of the weight he foreshadowed hours earlier in a photo on his own Instagram page. Austin’s Bryan Vera (23-7, 14 KOs), who made an identical 167 1/2 and enjoyed a considerably larger organic following than Chavez – as opposed to a less-authentic contingent of Chavez fans waving overhead wooden noisemakers and cheering at a volume that belied their collective scarcity – looked on amusedly at a large placard the Chavez camp unveiled as Chavez took the scale.
“Voided” read the red stamp across the fake check that represented what $250,000 fine Chavez was contractually obligated to pay Vera in the event of Chavez’s missing weight, a thing he managed to do a few times before their first fight. “168 LBS. MAX” read the Memo portion in the bottom left corner of the fake check, and Chavez alternately smiled and grimaced ferociously as he enjoyed more of the good-natured banter that has marked the promotion of this rematch. If “Son of the Legend” and Vera share any feelings of mutual animosity, none was displayed Friday.
Less enthusiastic about his visit to the scale was co-main-event Mexican Orlando “Siri” Salido (40-12-2, 28 KOs), the WBO featherweight titlist whose main role Saturday was to provide undefeated Ukrainian Vasyl Lomachenko (1-0, 1 KO) a world title in only his career’s second match. Salido will not be able to serve that role, exactly, as after marking 128 1/4 pounds, more than two pounds over the featherweight limit, and looking dry and gray as a result of his having tried, Salido did not make any effort to lose any further weight, losing his title officially about 30 hours before he could have it beaten out of him by Lomachenko.
Other notables making weight Friday were Houston’s former lightweight world champion Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz (38-4, 19 KOs), who will fight Mexican Gerardo Robles (18-12, 9 KOs), and Oklahoma’s Alex “El Cholo” Saucedo (12-0, 9 KOs), who will in all probability decimate Illinois welterweight Gilberto Venegas (12-12, 4 KOs).
Finally, though, Saturday’s most probable decimation will come in its main event. While Chavez and Vera looked nearly comparable in size Friday afternoon, Chavez’s long frame is expected to add 15 or so pounds to it before opening bell rings on his rematch with Vera. Boxing is ever an unpredictable entity, but one hopes if Chavez is able to body Vera with his left shoulder early, cornering the Austinite and lashing him with overhand rights, Vera’s corner will not be stubborn or proud as its charge – and will stop the fight too early, rather than too late.
First bell is scheduled to ring at Alamodome at 5:00 PM CT. 15rounds.com will have full undercard coverage from ringside.
