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Despite reports that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr would return to the ring on June 16 in Los Angeles, Dan Rafael reports that the idea has been changed to June 16 in El Paso, Texas, which will allow Chavez a couple of benefits. First of all, he gets to fight again in Texas, under the worst major commission in boxing, a combination that recently sparked a lot of controversy after Chavez's win over Marco Antonio Rubio.
Also, he gets to have his fight paired with the Pacquiao vs Bradley replay on HBO from the previous weekend, rather than be the "lead-in fight" the week prior.
One rumored opponent, as we discussed before, is Martin Murray of England. Andy Lee has also been a rumored opponent, and that was thought to be a done deal, but looks far from done or even hopeful at this point.
Chavez (44-0-1, 31 KO) also has that alleged must-do fight against Sergio Martinez in line, which the WBC insists that they're going to enforce, but they've insisted for a while now that they're going to enforce it, and nothing happens.
Frankly, with Chavez now an established HBO headliner, I could imagine Top Rank being willing to let Chavez ditch the WBC belt to avoid the fight. It will hurt his reputation, but reputation has never been his strong suit in the first place, so who cares? He'll still have the cash registers ringing, and that's his ultimate purpose right now.
Nonito Donaire had also been said to have a June 16 date for his next fight, but has been moved to a target date of July 14, co-headlining with Juan Manuel Marquez at Cowboys Stadium.