Trainer Virgil Hunter speaking following the Chavez Jr.-Vera bout on HBO (Photo: Chris Robinson – www.HustleBoss.com)
By Chris Robinson
It was hard not to feel bad for Brian Vera on Saturday night.
Facing off with a much bigger Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on HBO’s airwaves inside of the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., Vera fought as spirited of a battle as can be expected over the course of ten hard-fought rounds.
When the fight had finished, scorecards reading 98-92, 97-93, and 96-94 all favored Chavez, who improved his record to 47-1-1 with 32 knockouts while Vera fell to 23-7 with 14 knockouts.
For many of the 5,206 partisans in attendance, however, Vera did more than enough to warrant the victory due to his sheer activity and ability to outland Chavez in several crucial moments of the fight.
Sharing his thoughts on Vera’s performance, trainer Virgil Hunter seemed at a loss.
“It’s sad, man; really sad,” Hunter revealed. “I thought Vera won the fight convincingly. What can you say?
“He outhustled him, he outworked him,” Hunter added. “Junior threw one punch at a time. I gave Junior the last round. That was his biggest round. It’s sad. I really feel sorry for Brian Vera and everybody. Look, you work hard, make all these sacrifices, take all this punishment in camp. It’s unfortunate. So when you hear these people saying ‘Boxing is this’ and ‘Boxing is that’, they’re right.”
As he continued to vent his frustrations, Hunter revealed that he saw some occurrences during the fight that made him sick to his stomach.
“You know, I saw some things going on around the ring that I don’t even want to discuss, that made me want to puke,” said Hunter. “I saw some people standing over the judges. It was unbelievable to me. I don’t even want to discuss it.”
Hunter refused to delve into the subject, and instead showed sympathy to Vera.
“Look, I’m not even going to get into that, because I’m in the sport. Like I said, my heart goes out to Brian Vera,” Hunter concluded.
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Robert Garcia feels Julio Cesar Chavez Jr landed the better punches than Brian Vera in their fight
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Virgil Hunter says he saw suspicious activities taking place ringside during the Chavez-Vera fight
Team Chavez Jr. claim that Julio’s injured hand affected his performance against Brian Vera
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. says he may go back with Freddie Roach following subpar performance vs. Vera
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Chris Robinson can be reached at Trimond@aol.com