Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fired back at world renowned trainer Nacho Beristain, who is the trainer of the Chavez's opponent -- Marcos Reyes -- in his upcoming fight on Saturday night in El Paso, Texas.
Beristain, who is also famous for training Mexican boxing legend Juan Manuel Marquez, recently took a swipe at Chavez for changing from one trainer to another over the past several years.
Chavez trained under Hall of Famer Freddie Roach before switching to Rodolfo Chavez. In his previous fight, the 29-year-old went under the tutelage of Joe Goossen, but parted ways after losing to Andrzej Fonfara in April. For his upcoming fight, the son of boxing legend -- Julio Sr. -- hired Robert Garcia.
Chavez lost in two of her last four fights with the two victories coming against Brian Vera in unconvincing fashion. For Beristain, trainers had nothing to do with Chavez's recent struggles -- it is all about the fighter.
"I think the problem is the son of the legend and not the trainer," Beristain told ESPN Deportes as translated by BoxingScene. "The problem is that maybe he doesn't like to train. He was training with his aunts and uncles who are boxing people that have all of the enthusiasm in the world."
Reacting to the statement of Beristain, Chavez said that he does not know what Beristain is getting from criticizing people, while also insisting that his 48-2-1 record and accomplishments speak for itself.
"I don't understand what Nacho Beristain's problem," Chavez said via BoxingScene. "In the past he has criticized me and also criticized other people. In his career, he goes around criticizing people. But the stats are different. I'm the first Mexican middleweight champion. I've only had two defeats."
For his part, Garcia also came into the defense of Chavez. The veteran trainer said that contrary to previous reports, the Mexican boxing star works hard in training, which made his job as a trainer easier than what he expected.
"I think everything has been much easier than I expected," Garcia told ESPN Deportes. "Julio is training every day. He is doing everything that he needs to do and everything was easier. He's training hard, he loves to train."
As for their strategy against Reyes, Garcia said that he just corrected small things and minor mistakes in head movement because he did not see any need for a major overhaul, saying that Chavez is very skilled and has a good fighting style.
