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Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. admits that in order to make the contracted weight limit of 164.5lb for his fight against Canelo Alvarez, he essentially had to strave himself for the two weeks leading up to the official weigh-in. It’s no secret that Chavez Jr. had a terrible, terrible outing - one he acknowedges was the worst of career.
In an interview with ESPN Deportes, Chavez Jr. talks about the criticism he’s been receiving following his shutout loss.
"Nobody thought that I would mark the weight, but that caused me to not have energy. In the last two weeks I ate very little, last week I did not eat almost anything. My mind wanted [to fight] but my body didn’t respond to me. I had condition but not strength. I don’t think the massage [right before the fight - an issue raised by both Nacho Beristain and Memo Heredia] caused my pathetic performance...[it was] undoubtedly the worst performance of my career," Chavez stated.
Chavez Jr. also acknowledged that the he’s deserving of the critical response from fans and that he’s taking it well, but that none of them understand the “superhuman effort” he gave just to make weight — and that he really had to make every sacrifice considering that the penality for coming in over the limit was extraordinarily expensive ($1M per pound).
“I know people did not have the show I wanted, when you get into the ring you do not go to lose, I feel bad too, worse than everyone, worse than my fans, but I made a superhuman effort [to make weight]. That's why Oscar De La Hoya and Canelo asked me to get down to that weight, they knew that it was going to kill me. I did not want to fail but it did not work for me, so I can continue to get more criticism...”
Chavez Jr.’s father, the legendary Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., has said since the fight that he’d rather his son simply retire if he’s going to continue to do things his own way (which haven’t paid off inside the ring). But by now, why would anyone expect anything different?