Jacobs-Chavez Jr fight moving forward despite legal threats

It appears that the super middleweight contender bout between Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. and Daniel Jacobs, now scheduled for December 20th in Phoenix, will go ahead as planned.

This after Chavez Jr., 51-3-1,  filed a lawsuit against the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) last week to get temporary relief from the court due to the NSAC having suspended him for failing to take a drug test.

Boxingscene.com’s Jake Donovan wrote about the lawsuit late last week that had been filed on December 2nd in Clark County, Nevada.

And, the summation of the lawsuit is that the son of the iconic Mexican boxing hero, should not have been required to take part in a Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) test in October because he had not yet filled out Nevada paperwork for the fight and doesn’t have a current U.S. Federal ID for drug testing, as his expired in April of this year.

As we wrote last month, when Chavez avoided VADA’s test, that led the Nevada commission to temporarily suspend Chavez pending his appearance at a review hearing. When Chavez did not appear at that hearing, the commission extended his temporary suspension.

Then, chairman Bob Bennett learned of Matchroom Boxing and promoter Eddie Hearn’s decision to hold the fight in Phoenix, Arizona instead of Las Vegas on the same December 20th date.

At that point, Bennett fired off a letter warning Hearn that he was potentially in violation of U.S. Federal Law for continuing to try to hold the fight elsewhere. Further, Bennett was threatening Hearn and Matchroom’s ability to be licensed to told future fights in Nevada, while this was going on.

Here was part of that letter,

“In addition, under the Ali Act, no boxer is permitted to box while under suspension from any boxing commission due to, among other things, failure of a drug test. Under Nevada law, an unarmed combatant that refuses to submit to the collection of a sample or specimen upon the request of the NSAC or its representative, or otherwise evades the collection thereof, has committed an anti-doping violation and is subject to disciplinary action just as he or she would be if he or she failed a drug test.

Based on Matchroom’s ongoing dealings with Chavez while he has been on suspension, it is apparent that Matchroom has violated Nevada law. Further, given that Chavez’s suspension is based on his refusal to submit to a drug test requested by the NSAC, and thus an anti-doping violation, it is apparent that the event scheduled to occur in Arizona on December 20, 2019, is in violation of the Ali Act.”

That hasn’t stopped Hearn and Matchroom from continuing to promote the fight, as the main event scheduled for their show to be streamed on DAZN from the downtown Talking Stick Arena.

As an interesting follow up to the drug testing controversy, Hearn and the state of Arizona are using “Drug Free Sport,” a testing agency that has been used by the NFL, but not really for boxing. It’s also not part of VADA, who was trying to do the previous testing in Nevada.  (Getting all of this?)

And, Hearn produced documents that Chavez and Jacobs agreed to be tested by Drug Free Sport at an Arizona hearing last month.

Then, on Monday night, The Athletic’s boxing insider, Mike Coppinger, tweeted this drug testing update for the fight:

Sources: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and Daniel Jacobs submitted blood and urine samples on Nov. 27, and no banned substances (WADA list) were found in either fighters’ system. The Arizona commission ordered testing ahead of the Dec. 20 super middleweight bout on DAZN

— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) December 11, 2019

Finally, the fighter who stands to lose the most in this is Jacobs. He lost a May 12 round decision and his IBF Middleweight Title to Canelo Alvarez in, coincidentally, Las Vegas. Jacobs, 35-3, 29 KOs, is looking for a possible rematch down the road with Canelo or current IBF 160 lb. champ, Gennady Golovkin.

Jacobs and Golovkin fought a tremendous 12 round fight in March of 2017 that Golovkin took by decision.

It’s also possible that if Jacobs wins, he could be in the mix for a title fight at 168 lb. with England’s Callum Smith. Smith recently defended his Unified Super Middleweight titles with a lackluster 12 round decision over fellow countryman, John Ryder.