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On September 28, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr will end a year-long absence from the ring when he faces Bryan Vera in an HBO-televised super middleweight clash, with the fight having been pushed back several times, and the weight limit moved up to a full 168 pounds, too, after previously sitting at a catchweight between 160 and 168.
Vera doesn't think Chavez is going to make weight, saying he saw him recently, and that he was still big.
"I don't think he'll make [168], but he's going to get penalized for it and [my team and my promoter] are going to make him lose the weight. [The weight for our fight] changed so many times already. I saw him [two weeks] ago and he looked big. ... I have to use speed...just really stepping around him and not so much movement. He's like a robot and you have get around him. Ronnie [Shields] has me doing a lot of things in the gym for that," Vera said.
Vera (23-6, 14 KO) is definitely the underdog, but he's won four straight since a 2011 loss to Andy Lee, too. He's a durable, tough scrapper who can take shots and doesn't back down from anyone, and let's not forget that Chavez (46-1-1, 32 KO) isn't far removed from struggling against Marco Antonio Rubio and Sebastian Zbik. This may be a trap fight for Chavez if he's not taking it seriously -- Vera is good and determined enough to be a problem if Chavez is half-assing camp.