Chavez vs Rubio: JCC Jr Admits Having Trouble Making Weight

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr has admitted he had a bit of trouble making weight for Saturday night's WBC middleweight title bout against Marco Antonio Rubio, telling Sal Rodriguez that the last pound was a struggle, which caused his delay to the scales and his immediate weighing in while nude, usually a last resort:

"We're fine, but the last pound was difficult. We made the weight and tomorrow everything is going to be alright. I'll be stronger and faster than Rubio. Tomorrow I want to demostrate why I’m the champion," Chavez told BoxingScene.com.

Chavez weighed in at 159½ compared to Rubio's 159, but it was easy to see while he was on the scales that Chavez was a bit nervous about the number that would come up. He arrived some 20 minutes late and was working down to the last minute to knock off that final pound.

While it probably won't wind up being a big deal, Chavez is notorious for weight struggles in his career, and we're at a point where they might have to consider bumping him up to super middleweight. It's that or stay on him about keeping in better shape between fights, which is something he doesn't do by all accounts, and was what most suspected to be the real reason he pulled out of a September fight with Ronald Hearns.

Chavez vs Rubio starts live at 10 p.m. EST on HBO, BoxNation and TV Azteca with the Nonito Donaire vs Wilfredo Vazquez Jr co-feature, and Top Rank will also be streaming the entire pre-HBO undercard on their web site. Bad Left Hook will have full coverage of each fight during the entire card starting at 7:30 p.m. EST.