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Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. (40-1, 30 KO's, 160 pounds) vs. Troy Rowland (25-2, 7 KO's, 159 pounds)

 

 

Chavez is the son of Julio Cesar Chavez who is arguably the greatest Mexican boxer, ever. That allowed Chavez, Jr. to turn pro on September 26, 2003 with a 4-round unanimous decision over Jonathan Hernandez following a very brief amateur boxing career. Officially, Chavez was 17-years old when he turned pro. However, Chavez' current promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank Promotions thinks that whatever birth certificate Chavez used was fake. Arum believed Chavez is probably about 2 years younger and really turned pro at 15-years old with almost no amateur boxing experience. Considering Arum reported Chavez, Sr., Arum's instincts on this one are probably pretty good. It seems unlikely that he would mess up when one of his top boxer's children were born.

 

However, based on the value of the Chavez name, Chavez, Jr. was quickly headlining small scale PPV's that were doing shockingly good numbers. Based on his youth, inexperience and drawing power, the young boxer has been heavily protected. Still, despite never being matched against a boxer that would be considered remotely good, Chavez is routinely drawing above 90,000 buys. Therefore, it would make no sense for Top Rank to rush the prospect if they can draw double TNA's best buyrate ever with a main of Chavez vs. Luciano Leonel Cuello.

 

Chavez' last match was a defense of his regional 154-pound title on September 12, 2009 at El Palenque de la Feria in Tepic, Mexico. In that match, Chavez defeated Jason LeHoullier via technical knockout at 2:43 of round 1. That was the main event of another one of Top Rank's small scale "Latin Fury" PPV's. The match had to be delayed, because Chavez was no where close to making 154 pounds on the date the match was originally scheduled to happen. Starting with this match, it appears Chavez is only going to be boxing at 160 pounds.

 

Chavez is unranked by The Ring and ranked by boxrec.com as the number 28 boxer in the world at 154 pounds.

 

Rowland is a class below Chavez' usual opponents, which is really saying something. Of Rowland's 27 professional matches, 25 have been in his native Michigan with the other 2 in the neighboring state of Indiana. In fact, the majority of Rowland's matches have been in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

 

Rowland's record is ridiculously inflated. In Rowland's 27 match professional career, he has faced 4 opponents making their professional debut or in their second match. One of those boxer's beat him. Rowland's record is filled with wins against boxers who should have had their license's pulled years ago for their own safety. Rowland knocked out the then 22-78-2 Jake Torrance in round 3 on December 16, 2000. On September 27, 2003, Rowland won an 8-round unanimous decision against Tyrus Armstead. Armstead entered the match 10-18-4 with 1 no contest and had not won a match in nearly 2 years. On September 11, 2004, Armstead won via unanimous decision over the 31-71-4 Anthony Ivory.

 

Rowland defeated Ted Muller via 8-round unanimous decision on October 7, 2005 at the DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids. Never one to look for a challenge, Muller had suffered all 4 of his losses in his last 5 matches. Apparently tired of beating up weak competition, Rowland took a nearly 4 year break from official boxing competition, only to return to beat up more weak competition. Rowland returned by defeating Joseph Harden by technical knockout at 1:10 of round 2 on April 24, 2009 at the Orbit Room in Grand Rapids. Harden can be added to the list of Rowland's opponents that should never have been sanctioned. He entered the match 10-20-2, and having lost his last 6 matches by knockout. Harden had not even lasted into round 5 in any match since 2002.

 

Rowland's last match and only match since the defeat of Harden was a 6-round unanimous decision over Dave Saunders on July 11 at Fifth Third Ballpark in Grand Rapids. Saunders was another ridiculously soft opponent. He was entering the match having lost his last 5 via knockout, and had not won since 2006.

 

Rowland is unranked by The Ring and ranked by boxrec.com as the number 220 boxer in the world at 160 pounds.

 

Officially Chavez is 23-years old, and that makes him 11 years younger then the 34-year-old Rowland. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance.

 

The official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are Burt A. Clements, Richard Houck and Paul Smith. The referee is Tony Weeks.

The current official result is that the official judges scored this match: 99-91, 98-92, 97-93, all for the winner and still undefeated, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. The win moves Chavez to 41-0-1 with 30 wins coming by way of knockout.

This result may not stand, though. On December 1, the Nevada Athletic Commission announced that Chavez had tested positive for a banned diuretic, Furosemide. The case is currently pending, but there has never been a false positive in the history of Nevada. That means Chavez is going to have his license suspended and this win will be retroactively changed to a no contest.

We will resume posting full recaps from the archives next week.