Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. outpoints Bryan Vera in rematch

• In his 50th professional fight%2C Julio Cesar Chavez won a unanimous decision
• Texan Bryan Vera lost for the second time in five months to Chavez

The second time around against Bryan Vera, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. looked more like his Hall of Fame father than ever.

The 28-year-old former middleweight champion from Mexico, who came in overweight in their first fight last September and had to forfeit six figures of his purse to Vera before giving a lackluster performance, left no doubt this time.

Chavez, appearing much better conditioned than in his recent past, came out swinging against Vera in their rematch Saturday in their 12-round super middleweight non-title fight. Chavez came away with an undisputable unanimous decision at the Alamodome in San Antonio. His famous father was sitting ringside doing broadcast work.

The fight was a punch-fest from the start and Chavez (48-1-1, 28 KOs) landed thunderous shot after thunderous shot. But Vera (23-8, 14 KOs) stood up to most of Chavez's crushing body shots and head-snapping overhand rights and lefts and answered with plenty of punishing combinations of his own. Both fighters are known for their iron chins, and they proved it Saturday.

Vera outworked Chavez, throwing 527 punches overall to Chavez's 312, but Chavez landed an astounding 62% of his shots, 192 in all. Vera, fighting in his home state, landed just 123, as Chavez blocked or ducked many of Vera's punches..

While many at ringside felt Chavez's victory in their first meeting,was a gift, he clearly won this one by scores of 117-110 twice and 114-113. He came in on weight and said not having to lose much weight in the final week before the fight was key.

"It was a better fight this time," Chavez said. "I won clearly. I threw a lot more punches. I proved I'm a better fighter than Vera."

Chavez showboated often throughout the fight, especially in the 12th round, and said he hurt his hand in the 10th round, and also his foot.

"I hurt him, but I hurt my hand and I decided to keep my distance because he's a very dangerous fighter," Chavez said. "I gave a good fight, this was a better version of myself but I will give more for the people."

Vera said he too hurt his hand early."You can see it's swollen, but I'm not making no excuses," he said. "(I was) just being lazy and the fight got away from me. I just got hit too much."

Vera was also upset because he was under the assumption that the fight was supposed to be 10 rounds. "I don't want to make excuses, but I found out four days ago it was a 12-round fight. We tried for a 10-rounder. I mean, it's always something different in this boxing. But I'm a fighter, I always give everybody a great fight. I'll always be here."

Asked how he was able to take so many of Chavez's powerful punches, Vera said, "My mom and dad raised me to be a tough kid. I'm too hard-headed, but I need to work on things and be a smarter fighter in order to get where I want to be.

"So I'm going to go back to the drawing board with (trainer) Ronnie (Shields) and see what he wants me to do."

Chavez's promoter, Bob Arum, said if he performed well Saturday, he could get a shot at undefeated middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan in a pay-per-view fight in July. Chavez was all for that.

"I like that fight because Golovkin is a great fighter, a strong fighter and undefeated, one of the best in the middleweight division. I want to fight him next."

However, Golovkin's father died from a heart attack recently at age 68, and Kazakhstani custom dictates that the family has a 40-day mourning period. So his scheduled April 26 fight on HBO against Andy Lee has been canceled, and it could be a while before Golovkin resumes training.

Chavez also said he would like a rematch with the fighter who handed him his only career loss, Sergio Martinez, who fights Miguel Cotto on June 7th at Madison Square Garden, though he said Martinez was afraid to fight him now.