Mexico – Julio César Chávez Jr., whose high-level boxing career was tainted with drug addiction and other difficulties and never approached the summits of his legendary father, was in Mexican police custody on Tuesday after being expelled from the United States.
His expulsion was expected since July, when immigration and customs application arrested him outside his studio house City and accused him of having made “fraudulent statements” at his request to become a permanent American resident.
In Mexico, Chávez, 39, faces accusations of affiliation of organized crime and arms trafficking, according to Mexican authorities.
He is the son of Julio César Chávez – widely considered as the greatest boxer in Mexico – and has spent his career in the shadow of his legendary father.
Boxers Julio César Chávez, on the right, and his son Julio César Chávez Jr., during a press conference in Los Angeles in May.
(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
His father both supported his troubled son and reprimanded his namesake, whose difficulties included drug addiction, legal problems and challenges of weight gain for his fights.
Despite his very publicized problems, Chávez won the title of the average weights of the Global Boxing Council in 2011 before losing the belt the following year.
Chávez was handed over to the Mexican authorities to apply Arizona’s border laws and was detained Tuesday in a federal locking in Hermosillo, the state capital of Sonora, the authorities said.
During her regular morning press conference, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that the boxer was in Mexican police custody.
A few days before his July arrest in Studio City, Chávez faced Anaheim for his latest fight – against Jake Paul, the influencer who became a pugilist. Chávez lost the fight.
When arrested in July, the American authorities described Chávez as a “subsidiary” of the Sinaloa cartel, which is one of the mexical traffic trafficking unions – and the most deadly.
Jake Paul, on the right, and Julio César Chávez Jr., on the left, exchange punches during their Cruiserweight fight in Anaheim on June 28.
(Anadolu / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Chávez faced criticism on alleged associations with cartel personalities, notably Ovidio Guzmán, a son of the sad drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, is now serving a perpetuity sentence in an American prison for his management role in the Sinaloa cartel. Ovidio Guzmán recently pleaded guilty of drug trafficking and other charges before the Federal Court of Chicago and is said to be cooperated with American prosecutors.
Controversies have long overshadowed Chávez’s career.
Chávez served 13 days in prison for a condemnation for driving driving in 2012 in the County of Los Angeles and was arrested by the Los Angeles police in January 2024 for firearms. According to his lawyer, Michael Goldstein, a court ruling on the firearm affair granted Chávez a “diversion in mental health”, which, in some cases, can lead to the rejection of criminal charges.
“I am convinced that the problems in Mexico will be eliminated and he will be able to continue with his diversion in mental health” in California, said Goldstein.
A persistent question in the case is the reason why Chávez was apparently authorized to travel freely between the United States and Mexico several times despite a Mexican arrest warrant issued against him in March 2023.
On January 4, 2025, according to the Ministry of Homeland Security, Chávez returned to the United States of Tijuana in San Diego via the port of entrance to San Ysidro. He was authorized despite the pending Mexican arrest warrant and an American determination a few weeks earlier that Chávez represented “a blatant threat to public security,” the DHS said in a press release on July 3 revealing the detention of the boxer.
Homeland Security said that the Biden administration – which was still in charge when Chávez entry in January – had determined that the boxer “was not a priority for applying immigration”.
During his training for Paul’s match, Chávez publicly spoke out against the expulsion program increased by President Trump, who sparked demonstrations and denunciations through California. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he accused the administration of attacking the Latinos.
Chávez told Times: “I wouldn’t want to be expelled.”
McDonnell reported to Mexico City and El Reda in Los Angeles. The special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico City contributed to this report.
