Mexico is renowned as one of boxing’s most prestigious nations, producing 164 world champions to date – the second highest of any country on the planet. Yet, with that number of title-holders, not all of them will be as legendary as the likes of Julio Cesar Chavez or Salvador Sanchez. Unfortunately for ‘El Tricolor’, two-division world champion Paulie Malignaggi says that Mexico has birthed the worst world champion of all-time, and he is still fighting today.
Julio Cesar Chavez defeated names such as Meldrick Taylor and Hector Camacho during his famous 90-fight undefeated streak, becoming a three-weight world champion before hanging up the gloves with an astonishing record of 107-6-2 in 2005 following a defeat to Grover Wiley.
A couple of years later, Wiley would see his name alongside the legendary name of Chavez once again, only this time it was against the son of his past dance partner – Chavez Jr.
At 30-0-1 Chavez Jr. dispatched of Wiley with ease and four fights later he found himself challenging for the WBC middleweight title, where he won a majority decision and increased his undefeated streak to 43 fights.
Three title defences would follow until Sergio Martinez put an end to Chavez Jr.’s hopes of emulating his father’s unbeaten run but Malignaggi told Pro Box TV that his streak should have been ended much sooner – labelling Chavez Jr. as the worst world champion of all-time.
“This guy sucked. This guy was one of the worst guys, maybe the worst guy to ever hold a world title. You can pinpoint it and say ‘oh this guy was worse, this guy was worse’, this guy was so bad. This guy lost seven or eight other fights in his career on the come up and they gave him the decisions, the only reason they gave him the decisions was because of who is father was.
“If he would have been treated like a normal person fighting those fights, he wouldn’t have even come within a sniff a world championship. He wouldn’t have even have come within a sniff of a regional title – this guy was horrible.”
The career of Chavez Jr. fell off of a cliff after losses to Canelo Alvarez, Daniel Jacobs and UFC superstar Anderson Silva and problems away from the ring ensued, prompting a three-year hiatus from the sport. However, the now 38-year-old returned to action on the undercard of Jake Paul’s clash with Mike Perry last month, where he outpointed Uriah Hall in a six-round contest.
With concern remaining around the health of Mike Tyson, many fans are speculating that the 54-6-1 Chavez Jr. may instead be in line for a showdown with Jake Paul and as a former WBC middleweight champion he would certainly represent the biggest name on the résumé of ‘The Problem Child’. Although, Chavez’s loss to Anderson Silva, who Paul has since defeated himself could prove costly for the Mexican.
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