Julio Cesar Chavez Jr once looked down and out, but it now seems he had his pick of two of the biggest crossover stars in boxing for his ring return.
The former WBC middleweight champion claims that he chose Jake Paul for his next fight over his YouTube boxing rival KSI for this comeback. Chavez last fought on Paul’s undercard in July of last year, where he defeated UFC veteran Uriah Hall by way of a controversial decision.
Now, he returns to the ring against Paul, who is coming off the back of the biggest fight of 2024 against Mike Tyson on June 28 in California. The pair will compete up at cruiserweight, far above where the Mexican had his world title success over a decade ago.
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Julio Cesar Chavez Jr explains why he chose Jake Paul over KSI for big money fight
For the best part of the last six months, Jake Paul and his team at Most Valuable Promotions had been working on a crossover super-fight with Canelo Alvarez. When that fell through, they began to move towards an exhibition with Gervonta Davis, but his draw with Lamont Roach but pause on that idea.
In the meantime, KSI was scheduled to face Dillon Danis in his Misfits Boxing return last month in a fight that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr was in the running to get. However, for some reason soccer player Wayne Bridge was chosen before Danis stepped in and Chavez wasn’t called.
Ultimately, the fight didn’t happen as KSI was too ill to compete, and he now appears to be focusing on ventures outside the ring.
“When the offer come to me and I came back to see my friends here, Jake is bigger,” Chavez told ESNews. “People ask me ‘is it one of the fight’s with a better payday for you?’ It’s not, it’s okay but the thing is the opportunity to give him a beating this time.
“I’m fighting him because I want to beat him and that’s the most important thing to me… I love Mike Tyson and I’m the first guy to fight Jake after he beat Mike Tyson and I want to take revenge for Mike Tyson.”
KSI’s promoter claims different reason for not fighting Julio Cesar Chavez Jr
Chavez’s version of events is different to what Mams Taylor, who owns Misfits Boxing and runs it alongside KSI. He claims that the fight was on the table and nearly done, but that they have instead opted to only go for fights with major names.
“I had a lot of communication with those guys and with Chavez,” Taylor told the Misfits Boxing YouTube channel. “He’s a great guy and his team are awesome and I basically had that fight lined up but I think now KSI really wants to move to fights with names that are going to just be mega mega fights.
“That’s no disrespect to Chavez Jr, he’s a legend. An awesome really cool guy and I’m sure Jake will probably fight him at some point… If he [KSI] is going to put that much effort and sacrifice into something then it’s got to have a pay off.
“Not finally only, that’s tertiary or secondary. But for him getting the fans really excited and motivated to be like ‘oh wow this is a massive fight’ rather than the boxing purists and people who know who Chavez is.”