Promoter Lou DiBella took to Twitter tonight and said that he's been told that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr has pulled out of his September 17 fight with Ronald Hearns with an injury. DiBella is not buying the injury excuse:
Just got word that Chavez pulling out of Hearns fight claiming injury. Horseshit!, Injury in his 185lb gut! See nonsense w/30 day weigh in!
For those who may have missed the weigh-in stuff that DiBella is talking about, here's the short version. The WBC had a 30-day weigh-in for both fighters, and there was a bit of controversy about them not disclosing Chavez's weight in a timely fashion. They eventually did, and said that Chavez weighed in at 173 pounds, or a pound and a half less than Hearns had weighed in.
But many still thought there was something shady going on, as Chavez had looked a bit out of shape at the press conference in Mexico for the fight, and definitely looked bigger than Hearns. So that's what is being referred to here.
There hasn't been anything elsewhere on the story just yet, so we'll let you know if this is confirmed by Chavez or his team, or anyone else. There has been a ton of drama around the decision by Chavez to fight on September 17, with neither Top Rank nor Zanfer Promotions supporting the fight, Freddie Roach unavailable, and Alex Ariza recently confirming he wouldn't go to Mexico for the camp, either. So it wouldn't exactly be a shocker if this fight is called off, as it seemed like a bad idea all-around anyway.