MEXICO CITY — Julio César Chávez Jr., whose high-profile boxing profession was marred by substance abuse and different struggles and by no means approached the heights of his legendary father, was in Mexican custody Tuesday after being deported from the US.
His expulsion had been anticipated since July, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him outdoors his Studio Metropolis house and accused him of creating “fraudulent statements” on his software to turn out to be a U.S. everlasting resident.
In Mexico, Chávez, 39, faces costs of organized crime affiliation and arms trafficking, Mexican authorities say.
He’s the son of Julio César Chávez — extensively considered Mexico’s best boxer — and spent his profession within the shadow of his fabled father.
Boxers Julio César Chávez, proper, and his son Julio César Chávez Jr., throughout a information convention in Los Angeles in Might.
(Damian Dovarganes / Related Press)
His father each supported his troubled son and chastised his namesake, whose struggles included substance abuse, authorized troubles and challenges in making weight for his bouts.
Regardless of his extremely publicized issues, Chávez gained the World Boxing Council middleweight title in 2011 earlier than shedding the belt the next 12 months.
Chávez was turned over to Mexican regulation enforcement authorities on the Arizona border and was being held Tuesday in a federal lockup in Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora state, authorities right here mentioned.
Throughout her common morning information convention, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that the boxer was in Mexican custody.
Days earlier than his July arrest in Studio Metropolis, Chávez confronted off in Anaheim for his final bout — in opposition to Jake Paul, the influencer-turned-pugilist. Chávez misplaced the struggle.
When he was arrested in July, U.S. authorities labeled Chávez an “affiliate” of the Sinaloa cartel, which is considered one of Mexico’s largest — and most deadly — drug-trafficking syndicates.
Jake Paul, proper, and Julio César Chávez Jr., left, trade punches throughout their cruiserweight bout in Anaheim on June 28.
(Anadolu / Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs)
Chávez has confronted criticism over alleged associations with cartel figures, together with Ovidio Guzmán, a son of notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, now serving a life sentence in a U.S jail for his management position within the Sinaloa cartel. Ovidio Guzmán just lately pleaded responsible to drug-trafficking and different costs in federal courtroom in Chicago and is reported to be cooperating with U.S. prosecutors.
Controversies have lengthy overshadowed the profession of Chávez.
Chávez served 13 days in jail for a 2012 drunk-driving conviction in Los Angeles County and was arrested by Los Angeles police in January 2024 on gun costs. Based on his legal professional, Michael Goldstein, a courtroom adjudicating the gun case granted Chávez a “psychological well being diversion,” which, in some circumstances, can result in dismissal of felony costs.
“I’m assured that the problems in Mexico will likely be cleared up, and he’ll be capable to proceed along with his psychological well being diversion” in California, Goldstein mentioned.
A lingering query within the case is why Chávez was apparently allowed to journey freely between the US and Mexico on a number of events regardless of a Mexican arrest warrant issued in opposition to him in March 2023.
On Jan. 4, 2025, in line with the Division of Homeland Safety, Chávez reentered the US from Tijuana into San Diego by way of the San Ysidro port of entry. He was permitted in regardless of the pending Mexican arrest warrant and a U.S. willpower only a few weeks earlier that Chávez represented “an egregious public security menace,” the DHS acknowledged in a July 3 information launch revealing the boxer’s detention.
Homeland Safety mentioned that the Biden administration — which was nonetheless in cost on the time of Chávez’s January entry — had decided that the boxer “was not an immigration enforcement precedence.”
Whereas in coaching for the Paul match, Chávez spoke out publicly in opposition to President Trump’s ramped-up deportation agenda, which has sparked protests and denunciations throughout California. In an interview with the Los Angeles Instances, he accused the administration of “attacking” Latinos.
Chávez instructed The Instances: “I wouldn’t need to be deported.”
McDonnell reported from Mexico Metropolis and El Reda from Los Angeles. Particular correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico Metropolis contributed to this report.
