Chavez will develop into an excellent fighter

I don't think he'll have much success at all at 168 tbh

guys like Ward/Dirrell will make him look foolish, and guys like Froch and Kessler will beat his brains in.

but he ain't making 160 much longer neither....

 

Bingo he ain't going no where 168 has too much talent

 

This.

It all depends how he handles the move up in weight and weather his chin is still good against guys who are his own size.

 

i disagree. People are blinded my that last one minute. He will only win fights by being bigger than other opponents at middleweight.

Barker and Macklin proved to me that they are better fighters than him

 

NO, once he mobes up he will be destroyed, Jr has great chin good heart and thats it. We have seen how much bigger he was than Sergio and still lost clearly once he goes up to 168 he is done!

 

I'm not sure, Jack.

The guys at 168 -- where he needs to move to -- will eat him up. He'll become a walking punch-bag. I admire and commend him for his courage in the 12th, but overall I wasn't impressed by his performance, and I can't see him enjoying the same size advantages he's accustomed to.

 

he will have a much shorter career because of his style but he will be back in another exciting bout, with his hands raised at the end.

 

Agreed. & the guy's @ 168lbs are severely overrated because of the tournament.
(Outside of Ward & Froch it's an open weight class)

 

If you rate Froch, then surely you need to rate Dirrell and Kessler then.

Chavez Bute would be intriguing.

 

No, he won't.

He will never be excellent, or even close.

It's been several years since people began saying "Oh, he could be something if he improved XYZ". He hasn't. Or, he's improved X (a little) but not Y & Z.

He's had a few years now in a world-class training environment at the Wild Card and showed negligible improvements. Sure, he tweaked his offense some, refining his existing weapons and adding a little variety to his arsenal, but he is still slow and still can't cope with even minimal movement, and he can't defend for ****.

He's only 26, but has pretty clearly plateaued. He will be fighting the same way at 36 if he hangs around that long.

He will never beat anyone who isn't vulnerable to superior size & plodding strength.

If he moves to 168 he will be a poor man's Librado Andrade.

Not a poor man's 2007 Librado Andrade. A poor man's already poor current 2012 Librado Andrade.

 

Honestly, I'd favor even present day Andrade to beat him at 168. He'd be in Andrade's wheelhouse, getting beaten at his own game.

Meanwhile, little brother Enrique would absolutely school him, similar to how Martinez did minus the hands-down stuff.

 

He also seems to really not care all that much about actually getting better. I don't see it myself either.

 

At 160, Chavez Jr is a contender-level fighter who happened to pick up a belt.

I don't ever see him being the kind of guy who can pick up a title and successfully defend it for 5-6 defenses against top competition, but he could pull off an upset here or there if the matchup suits him - ie, the other guy is smaller/weaker. Going to 168 isn't going to give him nearly as many of those, the same way Margo was never going to have great success at 154/160.

 

The ****ed up thing is, he's about fifty times more motivated now than he was during his initial run, pre-Roach. Most of his fanbase I'd wager only know him since winning the WBC title, or at the very earliest from his first "superfight" with Duddy.

They probably don't know the full panic mode in the Chavez camp towards the end of the Latin Fury run, where he literally said he didn't want to box professionally or have any real passion or desire for it and was only doing it because he was pushed into it as the family business and didn't really want the pressure of having to live up to his dad. He very nearly quit the sport in frustration precisely because he wasn't getting any better. During those first several years he was either blowing out weak tomato cans and not learning a damn thing from it, or he was struggling like hell and escaping with gift decisions whenever he stepped up to the likes of a green Carlos Molina, and later Matt freaking Vanda and Luciano Cuello. (foreshadowing the Zbik robbery even after he came back "new and improved")

So, he's a MUCH better fighter under Roach, and a lot "hungrier" than he ever was coming up as a young prospect...but still a disappointment to those viewing him as the heir presumptive to the face-of-Mexican-boxing throne.

He's improved all there is to improve, and hit his ceiling, and still fallen well short of expectations and miles away from the tree. As much as he's gotten better, he still isn't great. As much as he cares more and works harder now, he still doesn't have the focus and discipline needed to cross over to the next level.