Angel Heredia, far right, is in training camp with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in Mexico
By Chris Robinson
On Saturday, May 6, former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will play the role of underdog when he faces off with fellow Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez inside of the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. in an HBO pay per view attraction.
Chavez (50-2-1, 32 KO’s) and Canelo (48-1-1, 34 KO’s) figure to give fireworks, and with the match taking place at a catch weight of 164.5 pounds, there are those intrigued whether or not Junior can make the weight. It’s been over four years, dating back to Sept. of 2012 when he faced Sergio Martinez, that Chavez has weighed under 165 pounds.
Helping Chavez in camp for a second consecutive camp is renown strength and conditioning Angel “Memo” Heredia. We caught up with Memo on Thursday evening to get his thoughts on how this particular camp down in Mexico has been for Chavez, including his core work and tutelage under trainer Nacho Beristain.
Check below for more.
Training camp…
“Training is going phenomenal. It’s going great. I’m very happy because Junior is working very hard. He’s only ten pounds or twelve pounds overweight. He’s looking strong. He’s looking fast. And the most important thing is that he’s really learning great things from the new techniques that he’s learning from Nacho Beristain. We’re four weeks away from closing camp and we’re feeling pretty good about it.”
Connecting with Chavez Jr in 2016…
“They called me and we had been in touch for a while and they told me to come back to LA. I went to his house and spent a couple of weeks in LA and we talked. He pretty much expressed to me that he wanted to come back and do things right. I knew that I had the tools to help him get better with the proper training and proper nutrition and proper dieting. We pretty much clicked and he was happy. I was excited, because it was a new challenge for me. We started training last camp, when he fought in December. He was 70% in terms of conditioning and he adopted pretty well. And obviously now, we feel more confident. The most important thing is that he’s doing everything correctly. Everybody knows that when Chavez trains right, he’s a good fighter.”
Camp atmosphere…
“Nacho Beristain has been very important for him. He’s been here with us in camp and they have very good chemistry together. He’s learning the new combinations; he’s actually changing his technique and he’s looking great. You’ll see him when he fights. And his father, Chavez Sr. is also here, involved with us. It’s a great camp.”
Making contracted catch weight limit of 164.5 pounds…
“It’s not going to be a problem. Yesterday we were at 179, 178 and he’s eating right. He’s properly training. We’re still four weeks apart. I don’t want him to drop the weight now, because we still have hard training. I want him to recover well. It’s not going to be a factor. We got almost five weeks. We’re in good shape.”
Chavez learning from Nacho Beristain…
“They’ve been training hard. They are doing long sessions. Right now, we just finished strength and conditioning. So, he takes a five-hour rest and then he goes with Nacho tonight and they train two, three hours. He’s very technical and they accent each other. He’s training very hard too, [with] his conditioning. We’re doing hard sessions. It’s never easy, especially if you push an athlete to the limit, and he’s really absorbing it well. Nacho, like I said, he’s old school, but he’s very smart when it comes to adjusting combinations and teaching combinations. And he’s very technical. I was with Nacho many fights with Marquez, and he’s very knowledgeable when it comes to technique. All those teachings are very important and Junior is really catching [on] to everything.”
Chris Robinson can be reached at CRobinson@hustleboss.com