Julio Cesar Chavez Jr may be a former world champion, but he has not escaped without any controversies in his career.
14 years before Julio Cesar Chavez Jr’s highly-publicized fight with Jake Paul is set to take place, the Mexican fighter beat Sebastian Zbik to become WBC World Middleweight champion.
This was the biggest achievement of Chavez Jr’s career and helped him step out of his father’s shadow for the first time.
However, that win was full of controversy and cast doubt on his legitimacy as a world champion.
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Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. controversially defeated Sebastian Zbik to become the World Middleweight champion
The whole situation surrounding the Chavez Jr vs Zbik fight on June 4, 2011, was fraught with controversy, even before the bell rang.
Sergio Martinez was the WBC World Middleweight champion and was widely recognized as the top fighter in the division.
However, a refusal to fight the undefeated interim champion Zbik saw Martinez stripped of the belt and Chavez Jr booked in a title fight against the German.
This quick turnaround to book Chavez Jr in a title fight reeked of opportunism, with the governing body seeing more money in the second-generation Mexican as champion than the rightful title holder.
If there was something amiss about the fight being set up, the result of the bout had fans and pundits alike scratching their heads.
Despite outpunching Chavez Jr – hitting 391 of his punches compared to his opponent’s 256, with 47% accuracy – and outboxing the Mexican throughout the bout, the judges awarded Chavez Jr the controversial victory.
While some strong body shots in the later rounds would have swayed some judges towards Chavez Jr, two of them had him as the outright winner, while the third scored the fight a draw.
Having none of them judging Zbik as the winner over 12 rounds has drawn harsh criticism from many, most notably the loser of the fight himself.
Sebastian Zbik accused Julio Cesar Chavez Jr of stealing the victory and the title
In the aftermath of the fight, Zbik made it clear that he did not think he lost and that the judges made the wrong decision.
He spoke with Fight Hub TV immediately after the bout, where the previously undefeated Zbik explained why he thinks he won the fight, and failed to understand the judges’ decision.
Zbik said: “I’m disappointed and sad that I lost my title. I think I made the fight, and they didn’t give it to me. They have stolen my belt.
“Normally, the challenger has to make the fight to become the champion, but I came here as the champion and I made the fight.
“I pushed him all the time, threw more punches, hit him more often — I did everything to win this fight. So I can’t understand what happened here.”
Chavez Jr will be hoping for less controversy when he takes on Jake Paul in California on June 28.