Dan Rafael of espn.com is reporting that undefeated Featherweight Mikey Garcia will take on once beaten Miguel Beltran Jr. as the televised co-feature of the June 4 WBC Middleweight showdown featuring Julio Cesar Chavez and Sebastian Zbik, spurning down a title opportunity against Billy Dib.

“It’s a good fight because styles make fights,” said Carl Moretti of Top Rank, Garcia’s promoter. “Beltran is a little bit bigger than Mikey. It can’t help but be a good fight.”

“They decided to not pursue the vacant IBF title fight against the worst television fighter in history,” Moretti said. “HBO wasn’t going near it and refers to Dib as the worst television fighter, and I don’t disagree. It’s a tough sell in today’s market. Mikey won’t have the opportunity with the IBF in his next fight, but I have no doubt he will fight for a title and win one.

“Anyone can fight for a belt, but looking good and moving on is where you make money and grow and cement your reputation. I think that passing on a fight with Billy Dib in Staples Center in a fight that would have been ugly to watch was a good move in the long run,” Moretti said.

“Mikey, more than anything, wants to be a champion, but passing on another HBO fight, it was just too much to give up,” said Garcia’s manager Cameron Dunkin. “He considers it an honor to be on HBO and he would never ever turn that down. Although he wants the IBF title and is thankful to them for making him the No. 1 contender, this wasn’t a 10-second decision. He said he can’t give up HBO for anything. It hurt him to give up the title shot, but he said that nothing touches being on HBO, especially to come right back and have a second fight in a row on HBO. He knows he will get his title shot eventually.”

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. – Pawel Wolak fight scheduled for Saturday night as part of a Top Rank PPV card is off due to Chavez being ill but the rest of the show will go on that will feature two title fights.

Chavez woke up with a 103-degree temperature on Tuesday and won’t fight, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told ESPN.com.

“He looked like he had shaken it and he worked out Monday. I was there and I saw it,” said Bob Arum, who will promote the show from Anaheim, California. “His legs were a little tight but he worked out OK. [Tuesday morning] he got up with a 103 fever. He tried. You can’t fault the kid. You can’t put him in a fight with a temperature. It is absolutely legitimate.”

Instead of the Chavez-Wolak main event, Arum said he would elevate the scheduled co-feature, a 12-round bantamweight match between the Philippines’ pound-for-pound-ranked Nonito Donaire (24-1, 16 KOs) and former bantamweight titlist Wladimir Sidorenko (22-2-2, 7 KOs) of Ukraine.

“He got sick last Thursday after sparring and we kind of knew something was wrong,” strength coach Alex Ariza told ESPN.com. “He felt a little weak, but he finished 10 rounds [of sparring] but he kept telling Freddie he wasn’t in the groove. We thought maybe it was just a bad day, but later that night when he did an interview he started getting the cold sweats.

“He got back in the ring on Monday. He did four rounds, but once he started hitting the mitts with Freddie, he had cramps in his legs and later that night when we went to my house, he had a low-grade fever. [Tuesday morning] he woke up around 7 when we were going to train and he had a higher fever, about 102 or 103, and we knew this was more serious than we thought. I reported to Bob and he said if the kid is sick, he’s sick and there’s nothing we can do about it between now and Saturday.”

Arum said Wolak (27-1, 17 KOs) would remain on the televised portion of the card and could face Mexico’s Jose Pinzon (18-1-1, 12 KOs), although Wolak and his team wanted to view a video of Pinzon before committing to the bout.

Also on the card: lightweight titlist Humberto Soto (53-7-2, 32 KOs) of Mexico defends his belt against Urbano Antillon (28-1, 20 KOs) of Maywood, Calif., and featherweight contender Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) of Oxnard, Calif., faces Olivier Lontchi (18-1-2, 8 KOs) of Montreal.

“I’m not going to cancel the show,” Arum said. “Anyone who wants a refund at the gate can get a refund. But you can’t cancel the show and do that to the kids who were getting ready to fight for the past six or eight weeks. You have an obligation if you can to follow through on the card.”

Top-10 contender Pawel “Raging Bull” Wolak will be In Harm’s Way on Saturday, December 4, when he challenges undefeated WBC Silver middleweight champion Julio César Chávez, Jr. in a 12-round title fight. Wolak replaces the injured Alfonso Gomez, Chávez’s original opponent, who withdrew today after an MRI detected a ligament tear in his left elbow.

Wolak (27-1, 17 KOs), from Mount Arlington, NJ, enters this fight riding a two-year, six-bout winning streak, with three of those victories coming by knockout. The combined record of the last three opponents he defeated — James Moore, Ishmail Arvin and Carlos Nascimento – had a combined record of 56-4-4 when he fought them, which translates into an impressive 88% winning percentage. His last fight, a 10-round unanimous decision victory over Moore (17-2), was fought on the historic Yuri Foreman-Miguel Cotto undercard at Yankee Stadium on June 5. He is currently world-rated No. 7 by the WBA.

“Everything worked out well”, said Wolak, who almost fought Chavez previously before the bout fell apart. “I had another fight December 16 so I will be in good enough shape to fight him. We are just finalizing some things (in training) and I don’t have to lose any (extra weight).”

A former New York State middleweight champion, Wolak, 29, is known as aggressive, high-pressure style fighter who always makes for exciting fights. Trained by Aroz Gist, Wolak, an East Coast fixture, will be making his West Coast debut when he rumbles with Chávez Jr.

“He is tough but hopefully my pressure will overwhelm him.” “I plan to dig deep every round and hopefully I will come out on top. I must thank my promoter Top Rank for this great opportunity and I will be ready.”

He wont be fighting Miguel Cotto, but popular Middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will be in the ring on December 4 as he will take on former world title challenger Alfonso Gomez as part of a Top Rank Pay Per View card in Anaheim, Californina, that according to Dan Rafael of espn.com

• Former flyweight titlist Nonito Donaire (24-1, 16 KOs), a top-10 pound-for-pound fighter, will move up from junior bantamweight to face former bantamweight titlist Wladimir Sidorenko (22-2-2, 7 KOs) for a vacant interim belt.

• Lightweight titlist Humberto Soto (53-7-2, 32 KOs) will make his third defense against Urbano Antillon (28-1, 20 KOs) in a bout that had been slated to take place in May but was called off when Soto elected to take a different fight.

• Lightweight contender Brandon Rios (25-0-1, 18 KOs), coming off a breakout performance in which stormed past favored Anthony Peterson for a dominant seventh-round disqualification win on Sept. 11 in his HBO debut, will face an opponent to be determined.

“I think it’s a nice card. I like that card. It should be a fun show.” Said Top Rank boss Bob Arum , adding that the Honda Center will be configured for a crowd of about 10,000. “We have priced the tickets very reasonably — $200, $100, $50 and $30 — so we’re expecting a good crowd.”

“I’m excited to fight someone who has a good resume like Sidorenko, who’s been champion,” Donaire said. “I’m excited to fight somebody at this level rather than the guys I’ve been fighting. It’s good to be challenged and it makes me better. I’m facing a guy who knows how to win and is experienced. The challenge is there for me. Sidorenko is not a joke.”

Should Donaire prove victorious he would be in line to fight Fernando Montiel in early 2011

If Soto and Rios each win their bouts, Arum said he plans to match them in the first quarter of next year.

“That’s the idea, and maybe we could do Rios and Antillon, too, if Antillon wins,” Arum said. “We’ll try to make the fight for HBO or Showtime.”

“Rios is a lovely kid and now he’s a hard-working guy,” Arum said. “I think he’s going to go far and I’d love to give him a chance to fight for a world title on one of the premium networks.”

“Chavez is taking the fight seriously,” Arum said. “He’s going to spar with Manny and it’s perfect. Chavez is bigger than Manny, but Chavez is getting ready for a smaller guy [Gomez] and Manny is getting ready for a bigger guy [Antonio Margarito on Nov. 13]. Chavez being in the Philippines sparring with Manny will help sell both fights.”

One of the fighters who did not make the cut for the pay-per-view, junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan, will still get a televised opportunity. Arum said he plans to have Martirosyan fight in his hometown of Glendale, Calif., in the headline fight on a Fox Sports “Top Rank Live” card Dec. 18, possibly against Pawel Wolak — who had been in the running to face Chavez.

“We’ll save people from having to watch Bernard Hopkins’ fight that same night,” Arum cracked, taking a dig at Hopkins’ light heavyweight title challenge to Jean Pascal, which is scheduled the same day on Showtime PPV.

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com former Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik could be heading for a December 4th showdown with undefeated and immensely popular Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. possibly in Cowboys Stadium.

That’s the fight we are looking to do,” Said Bob Arum, who promotes both Pavlik and Chavez Jr.

“We were sitting around having drinks and we came up with it,” Arum said. “We checked with [Chavez trainer] Freddie Roach and he loves the fight. Cameron Dunkin )who manages Pavlik) checked with the Pavliks and they love the fight, so let’s get it on.”

“When I got back [to Las Vegas] from San Juan, I checked with both sides again and everybody was on board,” Arum said. “We’re going to move ahead in the next couple of weeks and get the deal done. I think we can do a lot of business with that fight.”

“The fight will be at 160 and he’ll get a nutritionist, a dietitian, whatever he has to do,” Dunkin said. “He’s fired up about this fight. He is fully committed to the fight. He’s even willing to leave [his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio] to train.”

Arum said he has not spoken yet about the fight with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones yet, but “I spoke with his guy in general about the date and this is the kind of fight that is right up their alley — a white guy from the Midwest fighting the son of the Mexican legend in Cowboys Stadium with reasonable ticket prices. I think we can do 40,000 or 50,000 people.”

“We want the fight, we absolutely want the fight,” Dunkin told ESPN.com. “We were told by Bob that it was going to happen.”

“After we got back from Puerto Rico, Bob called me again to talk about the fight and I told him. ‘Everybody was on board so let’s make the fight happen,’ ” Dunkin said.

“I still need to know the money,” Dunkin said. “Bob said he’d give us a guarantee and a really good upside and everyone will make a lot of money. He said, ‘I can’t promise you a lot of guaranteed money, but if the fight does well everybody will make money.’ We’re fine with that. We’re willing to earn our way. I think it’s a very sellable fight. I think people would like to see it. I’ll tell you one thing — it’s a fun fight and it will be an action fight. Both of these guys can hit and both of them get hit.

“We’re ready to go. We’re just waiting for Bob to let us know what exactly he’s talking about financially. Other than that my guy is itching to go. When he heard it might be at Cowboys Stadium, he got really excited. He said that would be a lot of fun.”
Photo By Chris Farina / Top Rank

SAN ANTONIO – Here’s something you didn’t know. Saturday afternoon round 3:30 P.M., a young Texas amateur named Adam Reynolds almost didn’t make his boxing debut at a 34-bout smoker in San Fernando Gym. Despite his youth and fitness, Reynolds’ blood pressure was too high for a ringside doctor to let him answer the opening bell.

The prospect of being struck in the face can play havoc with your heart.

Eight hours later, about a mile southeast of San Fernando, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. put the finishing touches on the best match of his 42-fight career. It was a performance marked unexpectedly by Chavez’s relaxation under fire.

There’s something to be said for growing up around the sport. There’s something to be said for knowing boxing.

Saturday at Alamodome, before a few fans more than 8,000, Chavez headlined “Latin Fury 15” and beat Ireland’s John Duddy in an entertaining 12-round middleweight scrap that saw sustained action in every round. It also saw Chavez win by two proper scores – Judge Crocker’s 116-112 and Judge Lederman’s 117-111 – and Juergen Langos’ unacceptable tally of 120-108.

For those who watched on pay-per-view or the south side of the ring, if the Texas crowd sounded unenthusiastic, here may be an acoustical explanation. Alamodome, which is cavernous, was configured to seat fans in its northernmost 1/3. That meant cheers had to go through a curtain and then across 200 feet of emptiness before they could hit the south wall and reverberate back to themselves.

There were plenty of folks there, though, and they cheered plenty too. Some cheered the Chavez brand, recalling fondly the night 17 years before that Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. posted a record attendance number in Alamodome. Some, no doubt, went to see a Mexican child of privilege get his ass beat by a tough Irishman. But all were there, in part, because they had no idea what was going to happen.

Chavez was considered soft by even some of his admirers, heading towards the ring Saturday. Among those who didn’t admire him, there was a belief that a 12-round match absolutely favored any Chavez opponent but especially a man rugged as John Duddy. Both were wrong.

“We took (Chavez) into deep water,” Duddy said at the post-fight press conference. “And, yes, he can swim. He’s a tough kid. A tough kid.”

Duddy wore dark sunglasses as he spoke those words. He wore them because Chavez had left bruises and shallow lacerations around his eyes. And there was a good metaphor in those glasses for anyone who had been at Wednesday’s press conference.

There, Chavez sauntered on stage like a kid hoping to become a matinee idol – jeans, open-collared shirt, stylish blazer, sunglasses. Duddy, meanwhile, watched him in a business-casual getup of khakis, belt, dress shirt and green Chuck Taylors. The contrast was stark: Working class meets spoiled brat.

At Saturday’s post-fight press conference, on the other hand, Chavez wore no sunglasses. He didn’t hide the damage round his eyes Duddy’s fists had inflicted; he’d completed a rite of passage in his own mind from novelty to contender.

“Now I am more – how to say it,” Chavez said in Spanish, and he paused. “I am more convinced of myself.”

And to prove it, he employed self-deprecation – the sign of a secure identity. Asked what difference his new trainer Freddie Roach had wrought, Chavez said he’d just needed someone to take out of him the “huevón.”

“Huevón” is a wonderful Mexicanism. It begins with the Spanish slang for a man’s balls, eggs, adds the augmentative “ón” and suggests a man with balls so big he doesn’t bother himself with trying at anything. It’s like laziness on PEDs.

Roach took that from Chavez in their four-week training camp, transforming him from a lazy fighter. Saturday night, in the opening three rounds, Chavez retreated behind an occasional jab and let Duddy impose himself. But at the start of the fourth, confident Duddy could not hurt him, Chavez went out and began to walk the Irishman down.

Duddy couldn’t have asked for more. He got a fair battle with a man who would not run from him. Had you told Duddy before the fight that Chavez would stand in the middle of the ring and trade with him for nine rounds, Duddy might have said, “Then I’ll have me way with him.”

But he didn’t. Duddy managed to buckle Chavez with a counter right hand in the sixth round, but after that, Chavez’s confidence grew in proportion to Duddy’s age; one man got quicker while the other got older. Take nothing away from Duddy’s character, though. After losing the ninth badly enough to justify a stoppage, Duddy went on to win the 12th on one judge’s card.

But Chavez was not in danger. He was entirely untroubled. It surprised a number of folks at ringside. It didn’t surprise Freddie Roach.

“Not at all,” Roach said afterwards. “That’s how he is in the gym. I’m telling you, he knows the ring. He knows boxing.”

Now all Chavez needs is more discipline and some improved balance. He has the right teacher for that. And he has most of the tools he’ll need to contend.

Boxing is a harsh master, of course, but it’s also one that teaches those who wish to learn.

Look at Adam Reynolds. After a second opinion from a ringside nurse allowed his first bout to happen Saturday afternoon, Reynolds fought a tense opening round. But by the third, he was loosened up – enough to win his debut with a knockout.

Bart Barry can be reached via bbarry@15rounds.com

Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank

No telling who was first to say that fathers fight so their sons don’t have to. But I’m guessing it was a mom, who from a ringside seat sat like a horrified witness on that inevitable night when dad got bloodied, bruised and stitched up.

It is a powerful sentiment, as simple as it is sensible. But sorry, mom, it doesn’t always apply. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the most notable example. From his father and uncle, he inherited instinct and skill, perfected them and transformed them into a family business. Mayweather Jr. makes it work. Marvis Frazier didn’t. Former heavyweight great Joe Frazier’s son should have listened to mom before Mike Tyson sprinted out of a corner in 1986 and launched him into unconsciousness. Joe would have lasted longer.

On the scale between Mayweather and Marvis, it’s hard to say where Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. belongs. A better idea, perhaps, is forthcoming Saturday night when the son with his dad’s legendary name, athletic royalty in Mexico, faces Irish middleweight John Duddy at The Alamodome in San Antonio on a pay-per-view card.

Duddy’s credentials (29-1, 18 KOs) say that Chavez (40-0-1, 30 KOs) is finally being weaned off a sliver-spoon diet of soft opposition. It’s a step or two in an attempt to quell impatience with a young fighter whose name represents an impossible collection of expectations. Chavez’ dad is a scarred personification of Mexican pride in a stubborn willingness to endure punches and punishment in the battle to fight, always fight on.

But it’s only a name. I’m not sure whether Chavez’s 24-year-old son will ever become a good fighter. But I am sure that he will never be his father. He can’t change his name to World B Free, but he can begin to abdicate expectations that he become a chip off of Mexico’s indestructible myth. After only a four-week camp, the move to trainer Freddie Roach is still in the experimental stage. If it begins to work against Duddy, however, it might be another step in allowing him to forge an identity, a fighter in his own right instead of just Jr.

“It came to a point in my career that if I wanted to do better,’’ said Jr., whose doubters grew after he tested positive for a banned substance after his last fight seven months ago against unknown Troy Rowland. “If I wanted bigger and better things I had to make a change. I did it because I knew I needed it for my career, I still want to do great things in boxing and that’s what motivated me. I thought: Do I want to stay where I am or do I want to get better? This opportunity came and I took it and I’m very happy that I did.

“Any time you make a move to the unknown you get nervous. I wasn’t sure what to expect but once I made the decision I knew I would be capable of doing anything he asked of me. I knew I could a lot of things and wouldn’t be here now if I couldn’t.”

Unlike his compact father’s heavy-handed style of fighting on the inside in a battle of attrition, the son is longer and seemingly built for tactics dictated by a long jab and agile footwork. The knowledge, perhaps instinct, is there, Roach said in a conference call Wednesday from San Antonio.

“He has enjoyed the work, he really has,’’ Roach said, almost as though he was surprised.

Roach, like everybody else, had heard the stories about a questionable work ethic. Doubts about Jr.’s willingness to fight on were further fueled by a late arrival to Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles. It was beginning to look as if Jr. had inherited only his father’s diva-like reputation for arriving for news conferences or workouts whenever it suited him. But, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said, Jr. was late only because of a paperwork delay in acquiring a visa.

“There were a lot of warning signs about how he is lazy and doesn’t want to work and would last a week with me,’’ said Roach, who agreed to work Jr.’s corner after Arum and Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler pointedly urged Jr. to watch the work ethic exercised by Manny Pacquiao in training for Joshua Clottey. “He is a great kid, great to work with, and is very disciplined. He gets up in the morning and does his roadwork every day, comes in the gym and sparred up to 12 rounds with three sparring partners. Overall, it was a real good experience and we enjoyed each other’s company and it was a pleasure.

“I was going to give him one more day to arrive in camp before deciding I wasn’t going to have enough time with him, but then he showed up. We had four weeks together and obviously it would have been better to have more but next time around we’ll get better and better. We know what we have in front of us and we’ll be ready for it.’’

For Jr., San Antonio represents a time and place, a career cross roads, for his father and maybe one for him. He was seven years old in 1993, when his father escaped from the Alamodome with a draw with Pernell Whitaker. Most of the ringside media scored it for Whitaker. The record crowd, about 60,000 Chavez partisans, didn’t boo. They left quietly, also knowing they had just witnessed a great escape. It was a moment when there were some sure signs of erosion in the Mexican icon. JC Superstar was neither super nor a star.

Seventeen years later, the son returns to the scene with a chance to show that he is his own man, a grown-up instead of a Jr.

Even mom couldn’t argue with that.

SAN ANTONIO – Wednesday afternoon in Alamodome’s cavernous but air-conditioned arena, “Latin Fury 15” participants, managers and trainers joined Top Rank’s Bob Arum on stage for their final press conference before Saturday’s card. Some wore jeans, others wore t-shirts, three even wore blazers. But only one had green Chuck Taylors on.

That would be Ireland’s John Duddy, of County Derry in the North, proudly wearing a color that’s as universally associated with Ireland as any color is with any land. Duddy will fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for the WBC Silver middleweight title in Saturday’s main event.

And yes, Top Rank knows what you might think about that.

“A lot of people say, ‘What the hell is the WBC Silver belt?’” said Bob Arum from the stage on Wednesday. “The winner becomes the WBC mandatory challenger, so it has great significance.”

Duddy confirmed the significance when his turn at the podium came, describing a world title shot – in this case with Sergio Martinez, the middleweight champion – as being a dream of his since childhood. But first he must beat Chavez.

“I’ve had this fight on my mind for a long time,” Duddy said of battling the son of Mexico’s most famous champion. “It’s a crossroads fight for us both.”

One of the themes of this week’s promotion has been Duddy’s family in Northern Ireland, specifically the uncle after whom he was named, John Francis Duddy, who was killed during a demonstration on Jan. 30, 1972 that came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.” Last week, a 10-volume tribunal report exonerated the Irish citizens killed that day, concluding all were unarmed. Duddy’s uncle, known colloquially as Jackie, will be honored with the tolling of a 10-count before Saturday’s main event.

While last week’s Saville Report brought joy to long-suffering members of Duddy’s family, on Wednesday Duddy emphasized how important it was to him to have their permission before using his prizefight as a way of honoring Jackie Duddy.

“My family were thrilled with this decision,” Duddy said when asked about the tribunal’s finding. “But I was never a part of that (struggle). I don’t want to seem to be jumping on the bandwagon.”

Duddy confirmed, though, that he would be fighting in his uncle’s honor with the blessing of his aunts and uncles Saturday, and also the blessings of his father – who will be in Alamodome.

But neither father nor son is likely to see much green in the Alamo City, at least not without it accompanied by Mexican red and white. Asked if he thought maybe his opponent would be the crowd favorite at an event alternately called “La Furia de Mexico,” Duddy was quick but charming in his answer.

“No maybe about it,” he said. “They better be for Chavez.”

Then he smiled and promised there was a chance he’d convert the crowd and have them “singing ‘Juan’ Duddy” by the end of the night.

SALVADOR SANCHEZ REMEMBERED
Leading Saturday’s “Latin Fury 15” telecast will be Salvador Sanchez II, the nephew of Salvador Sanchez, a Mexican fighting legend who made nine professional appearances in Texas, including four in San Antonio. The younger Sanchez is eager to garner a fraction of the acclaim his uncle won in a career defined by 10 world title fights.

“To be here, where my uncle defended his title, is an honor,” said Sanchez, Wednesday afternoon.

RAUL MARTINEZ WANTS TO BE YOUR CHAMPION
Local interest will also focus itself on Saturday’s second televised card when Raul Martinez and Gabriel Elizondo, two friends who grew up together in San Antonio’s amateur program, put their camaraderie aside and prove there are no friends in the prizefighting ring.

“It’s a great privilege, a great honor, to be fighting on this card,” said Martinez from Wednesday’s podium. “I want to show San Antonio they’ve got a future world champion here.”

Martinez also acknowledged the city’s last world champion, Jesse James Leija, whose Championfit Gym hosted an open workout Tuesday.

ALAMODOME CONFIGURED FOR 15,000
Saturday night, Alamodome will have roughly half its seats curtained-off. An upcoming convention will take the south side of the building, with the north side reserved for boxing. This is great news for local fans. A quick peek at the ringside area Wednesday revealed that upper-deck seats are also covered in curtains, meaning that every seat Saturday will be a good one.

Top Rank officials confirmed ticket sales have been pleasantly brisk, but plenty of seats still remain available.

FRIDAY WEIGH-IN ON THE RIVER
The weigh-in for “Latin Fury 15” will happen along the River Walk at 1:30 P.M. on Friday afternoon at the Arneson River Theatre, just north of La Villita. It is open to the public.

Anyone willing to brave June’s humidity will be rewarded with perhaps the most picturesque setting in which any boxing weigh-in has yet been conducted.

SAN ANTONIO – Tuesday afternoon, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and his new trainer Freddie Roach conducted an open workout for local media that was much more than advertised. Far from the scripted, lather-me-up-for-the-press exercises these events usually comprise, Chavez and Roach worked long and hard. And it looked like one of them needed it.

Chavez (40-0-1, 30 KOs) arrived later than initially planned at Jesse James Leija’s Championfit Gym – part of “Latin Fury 15” fight week festivities – though not for the reasons some might expect. Originally scheduled to walk through the paces before Saturday’s co-main event star Marco Antonio Barrera, Chavez instead had his costar go first so that Chavez could have more time for stretching, shadow boxing and lots of pad work.

Before working on his new charge’s balance, timing and occasionally questionable defense, Freddie Roach answered questions with typical honesty.

“More time would have been better,” Roach said of his short training camp with Chavez. “He’s not lazy. He’s trying. But he doesn’t have all the moves yet.”

Asked to list Chavez’s strengths, Roach treated his guy’s height and reach.

“He has a great jab, but he doesn’t use it as much as I want him to,” Roach said. “He’s not 100 percent there right now.”

If Roach thought he was getting a lazy underachiever in Chavez – a label that has haunted the young Mexican with the country’s most famous name – he was pleased to learn that was not the case.

“He’s actually a very nice kid,” Roach said. “I was really surprised.”

When asked what most concerns him about Ireland’s John Duddy (29-1, 18 KOs), Chavez’s Saturday opponent, Roach was candid.

“Duddy has a pretty good right hand,” he said. “My guy tends to get hit with those.”

Probably a few left hands, too. Once Alex Ariza, Roach’s strength and conditioning coach, was done stretching Chavez and watching him shadow box, Roach put on the hand pads and began a session with Chavez that could best be called instructive. Trainer and fighter looked well-rehearsed and tightly in-sync while doing 1-2s but quickly stumbled on dead patches when their focus turned to hooks and defense.

As Roach promised, Chavez looked particularly susceptible to right crosses, as his left hand strayed low much of the time. More troublesome still were the balance issues Chavez showed while trying to come off the ropes by pivoting leftward on his lead foot. A rudimentary move, the pivot’s requisite weight shift befuddled Chavez enough for Roach to spend the better part of a round on it, belying the merits of Chavez’s pristine record and making ringsiders wonder what will happen if Duddy forces Chavez to the ropes Saturday.

That match will be the main event of a nine-fight card promoter Top Rank will stage at Alamodome, downtown.

MARCO ANTONIO BARRERA BACK IN FIGHTING TRIM
Also present Tuesday afternoon were Mexican three-division world champion Marco Antonio Barrera (65-7, 43 KOs) and undefeated Phoenix hopeful Jose Benavidez (6-0, 6 KOs). Barrera will fight little-known Brazilian lightweight Adailton De Jesus (26-4, 21 KOs) in Saturday’s co-main event, while Benavidez will face Rhode Island’s Josh Beeman (4-6-2, 2 KOs) in the card’s opening bout.

After skipping rope, doing some light shadow boxing and saluting gathered fans, Barrera took a shower, changed and greeted the media, looking trimmer than he had during a press conference last month.

Asked how high his weight had climbed after his loss to Amir Khan 15 months ago, Barrera was truthful if not proud.

“One forty-seven,” Barrera said. “I let it go a little. It was the highest it has ever been. But I have lost the weight slowly, little by little. I feel good.”

SAN ANTONIO – The son of legendary Mexican prizefighter Julio Cesar Chavez was at the Alamodome Thursday morning. He shared the stage with Mexican prizefighting legend Marco Antonio Barrera. He posed for pictures with famous American prizefighters Jesse James Leija and Carlos Hernandez. His name was the most recognizable, though. Even if his resume was the shortest.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. can take a big step toward finally justifying his celebrity and paychecks next month when he fights Ireland’s John Duddy in the main event of Top Rank’s “Latin Fury 15.” Chavez, who dressed in an open-collared shirt and fashionable jeans that appeared bloodstained, at Thursday’s press conference, said the right things, looked trimmer than usual, and expressed a long-overdue desire to become a great fighter.

“We are going to prove that I am ready to prove that I am ready to fight for a world title,” Chavez Jr. said from the podium.

June 26 will mark Chavez Jr.’s second match in Alamodome, his first as a headliner. And the venue has been good to La Familia Chavez.

“I am happy to be coming back to San Antonio,” Chavez Jr. said. “This is where my father set the attendance record (against Pernell Whitaker). This city has been good to us.”

Top Rank president Todd DuBoef, too, had good things to say about his company’s return to the Alamo City.

“In this show, we felt, nothing better than the Alamodome,” DuBoef said Thursday. “San Antonio is an incredible hotbed for boxing.”

ENTER FREDDIE ROACH
Chavez Jr. and his people seem to realize that John Duddy is by far the best opponent Chavez has faced in his 41-fight career of beating setup men from the Midwest. To prepare for Duddy, then, Chavez Jr. acquired the services of esteemed trainer Freddie Roach and moved his training camp to Los Angeles.

“They’ve been in L.A. the past couple of days,” DuBoef said Thursday.

Asked for an early opinion of his new trainer, Chavez Jr. didn’t wait for a translation, and even switched from Spanish to English.

“Best trainer in the world,” Chavez Jr. said of Roach.

Asked how familiar he was with John Duddy’s style, though, Chavez Jr. was a bit less emphatic.

“I know he is a fighter with a punch,” Chavez Jr. said. “He is strong. He has had many fights at middleweight.”

Next month’s fight will happen at junior middleweight, though, the lowest weight at which Duddy has ever fought. That will be six pounds lighter than Duddy was the night he decisioned Yory Boy Campas at Madison Square Garden in 2006. Chavez Jr. has yet to prove himself anywhere near Campas’ caliber. What, then, does Chavez Jr. believe he’ll have on June 26 that Campas did not?

“Campas didn’t have his youth in that fight,” Chavez Jr. said. “And I am going to be in my best form.”

Finally, Chavez Jr. listed his current weight as 175 pounds. Asked if that were a normal weight for him, one month from a fight, Chavez Jr. and his manager Fernando Beltran were both adamant.

“Better!” said Chavez Jr.

“Much better!” said Beltran.

TOP RANK’S SILENCE STILL GOLDEN
Nothing newsworthy was said Thursday of Top Rank’s negotiations with Golden Boy Promotions for a November fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

“Nothing,” said Todd DuBoef, when asked what might be new.

And those rumors that DuBoef is in constant communication with Richard Schaefer to ensure the fight gets made?

“I haven’t had a conversation with him since December,” DuBoef said.