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Forty-nine wins. Two losses. One draw. Twenty-nine years in age. The son of an all-time great. Almost universally loathed.

If you were to try and summarize where Julio Cesar Chavez Junior is as a fighter right now, these descriptors would all have to be near the top of the list. Junior was once thought to be a cash-cow that would help to bring Top Rank Promotions to new financial heights. Later he became a prized chip in Al Haymon’s Premiere Boxing Champions war chest. Most recently, though, he has been the object of skepticism, the subject of derision, and the butt of many jokes in boxing circles. Perhaps, worst of all – if the boos that rained down on Junior after his victory in El Paso, TX this weekend serve as any indicator – even his once-reliable Mexican fanbase has started jumping off the bandwagon at an alarming rate. Hell, even Chavez Senior seemed like he had to force himself to put on an enthusiastic face at times on Saturday night. If you peer closely enough at Julio Cesar Chavez Junior, you can almost see that rock bottom racing up at him.

In fairness, Junior has brought most of this on himself. He has been burning through trainers like cigarettes. From a personality standpoint, he’s always come off as a bit entitled and petulant, something that has only seemed to magnify as the going has gotten rougher. He’d always had a reputation for having poor training habits, and yet even on the comeback trail he has been content to miss weight in his last two bouts. Make no mistake about it; these are not good looks. Did you see Robert Garcia and Junior next to each other during that post fight interview? How much longer do we really think that marriage is going to last? Even the announcers on Showtime (a network who has seen almost all of their prized stable of talent flee to the PBC shows on network television and basic cable, mind you) seem unable to put on a friendly face when it comes to him.

Junior has gone full-on heel. He’s the bad guy. And here’s the thing; we should be thanking him for it. Boxing, like any sport, needs storylines. It needs heroes, and it needs villains. Floyd Mayweather will tell you. “Pretty Boy” Floyd was a respected prospect who flashed a million-dollar smile and had the respect of fans and pundits. “Money” Mayweather was a crossover star who made hundreds of millions of dollars and packed arenas with bloodthirsty fans hoping to see him finally lose. Not only that, but (as Mayweather himself loves to remind us) he got the opponents that he was facing career best paydays. Not by being likeable, but rather by being extremely unlikable. But here’s the thing, Mayweather isn’t going to be around forever. How many fights does he really have left? One? Two? Boxing fans are going to need somebody new to root against. Maybe, just maybe, Junior is here to fill that void.

How can it be anything but kismet that we have been delivered a new foil right around super middleweight? There are big names at 160, 168, and 175. Names that are just waiting for the right event, the right circumstances, the right opponent, so they can break out. Who better than Junior to be that opponent? He’s increasingly reviled. He’s arrogant. He’s got a famous name. He likes to bull forward and try to slug away. He’s shockingly easy to hit, but has a surprisingly good beard. It’s like somebody engineered the perfect opponent in a lab, and out popped Julio Cesar Chavez Junior. A resounding victory against Chavez has the potential to be star-making for the more talented but avoided fighters stuck in a boxing rut. He almost did it for Sergio Martinez, but Maravilla’s body failed him shortly after his big victory. Maybe Golovkin, Ward, or Kovalev will have better luck. Yeah, sure, there’s promotional issues involved, but if Haymon’s already shuffling Junior over to Showtime, how much longer do you think he’s going to remain interested?

You know one of the best parts about Junior? He’s not nearly as guilty a pleasure as Mayweather. Floyd has a problematic history of violence against women, but when you really think about it, what are Junior’s sins? Having a famous father? For his entire career, Junior has financially benefitted from carrying Julio Cesar Chavez’s name, sure, but he has also worn the name like a noose. His firing of trainers and his bad training habits? It seems like this handicaps Junior more than helps him. His drug use? Junior has gotten busted with THC in his system, not some performance enhancing drug – in any other sport (or perhaps with a more liked athlete) fans would be lamenting how stupid it is that a competitor was being crucified for doing a drug that much of the country uses recreationally. The entitlement? The arrogance? The spotlight? Don’t think of those as detriments, instead call that personality and exposure, a couple of things that any villain worth his salt needs.

Al Haymon is going about this all wrong. He shouldn’t be throwing Stephen Espinoza a bone and burying Junior or Showtime. He should be trotting him out on CBS, ESPN, and NBC once every couple months to fight some blown up middleweight who is competitive for twelve rounds but doesn’t quite have the pop to stop Junior from coming forward. Put him in there with still popular but old and outgunned former champions. Really turn the fans against him. Haymon should have cameras following Chavez through training camp; remind us of the blown off schedule at the gym in favor of shadow boxing in his living room, show us the stoned cereal binges in pink boxer briefs, let us see his frustrated all-time-great father and his trainer-of-the-week at wits end. Build the perfect heel… then feed him to Adonis Stevenson, because it takes a special kind of asshole to make “Superman” seem charismatic and likable. That’s what you do with a fighter like Julio Cesar Chavez Junior. You don’t waste him.

Forty-nine wins. Two losses. One draw. Twenty-nine years in age. The son of an all-time great. Almost universally loathed. Go ahead and say hello to the bad guy, boxing fans. Grab a beer and settle in on your couch. Get nice and cozy. Julio Cesar Chavez Junior is going to be sticking around for a while, yet. He’s going to be on your TV screens. He’s going to be in your living room. And as boxing fans, we should be grateful for that.

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