A court in Nevada granted Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. a temporary injunction which will allow him to fight Daniel Jacobs on Friday night in Phoenix, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.
Chavez was suspended by Nevada for refusing a drug test.
“It was very important for us, especially for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., to get to this fight against Jacobs without any restriction, so it was very important that this temporary suspension be lifted,” Miguel Leff, Chavez’s lawyer told ESPN. “We will have the opportunity to collect and review the information and when we have everything ready, we will see the case in court, but that will be after Friday’s fight.”
“We don’t represent him, but they got an injunction and he’s no longer suspended,” Promoter Eddie Hearn said. “He’s been licensed to fight in Arizona for some time, but this completely clears up the matter and we look forward to a huge show with over 10,000 [in attendance] on Friday.”
“If someone wants to have a grudge, I mean, that won’t be the first time in boxing someone had a grudge,” Hearn said. “We’ve done everything completely by the book. The fact is, if Arizona didn’t license Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., of course, we wouldn’t put the fight on. That’s why we’ve had Gabriel Rosado on the card, signed to stand in, if there was an issue. But Chavez has fought his own battle. It had nothing to do with us. We don’t represent Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. We have a contract with him to take part in a fight with Daniel Jacobs, and if he’s licensed, we can’t just rip that contract up and say, ‘Sorry mate, we’re not going through with the fight.’ The fact is he’s gone to court and won in court, and he’s no longer suspended. We’re doing the fight, and we’re happy to do the fight.
“We’ve done nothing wrong. The argument was, ‘Oh, you’re going to do a fight with a suspended fighter in another state.’ I mean, now, that’s completely, factually incorrect. So in that respect, it puts the matter to bed from a Matchroom point of view. How Chavez deals with it from here, obviously he’s his own fighter, he’s got his own promoter, he’s got his own manager. That’s not really my business. All I know is he’s not suspended in any other state, and he’s licensed by Arizona. Onward we go.”
The Nevada commission declined to comment on the situation. Arizona commission chairman Scott Fletcher told ESPN in a statement that he was aware of the Nevada court decision to grant to the temporary restraining order and that “based on the court’s ruling we are looking forward to a great event this Friday at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix. Both athletes have tested negative [in prefight testing handled by Drug Free Sport] for all performance enhancing drugs, masking agents and illicit drugs and will be subject to additional tests.”
