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Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. was arrested by ICE on Thursday for deportation. The arrest came just days after Chávez’s loss to YouTuber Jake Paul in Anaheim, California, on the last weekend of June.
Chávez was arrested for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application. He was being processed for expedited removal, according to U.S. authorities.
News of the arrest set the fighting community into a frenzy, with Chávez Jr. suddenly emerging as a prominent figure in the nation’s ongoing deportation saga.
Chávez Jr. has an extensive criminal history and suspected alleged ties to a drug cartel, per DHS
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Chávez Jr. has been charged with several crimes while in the U.S.
On Jan. 22, 2012, California Highwaay Patrol arrested Chávez and charged him with DUI alcohol/drugs and driving without a license. On June 23, 2012, the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, convicted Chávez of the offense of driving under the influence of alcohol and sentenced him to 13 days in jail and 36 months’ probation.
On Jan. 14, 2023, a District Judge issued an arrest warrant for Chávez, for the offense of organized crime for the purpose of committing crimes of weapons trafficking and manufacturing crimes, in the modality of those who participate in clandestinely bringing weapons, ammunition, cartridges, explosives into the country; and those who manufacture weapons, ammunition, cartridges, and explosives without the corresponding permit.
On Jan. 7, 2024, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested Chavez and charged him with Illegal Possession of an assault weapon and manufacture or import short-barreled rifle. The court convicted Chavez of these charges.’
DHS also suspects Chavez is allegedly believed to be an affiliate of the Sinaloa Cartel, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Chavez’s application was based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen, who is connected to the Sinaloa Cartel through a prior relationship with the now-deceased son of the infamous cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, according to DHS.
Meanwhile, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that Mexico hadn’t previously arrested boxer Chávez Jr. on a 2023 arrest order, because he had been mostly in the U.S. at that time.
“The hope is that he will be deported and serve the sentence in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said during her daily news briefing Friday, referring to charges that Chávez faces for arms and drug trafficking.
The Biden administration let Chávez Jr. into the country just before the former president left office, per DHS
The boxer was nearly cast out of the country months ago.
According to DHS, in December 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had made a referral to ICE that Chávez was an “egregious public safety threat,” but Chavez was allowed to reenter the country on Jan. 4, 2025 after records indicated the Biden Administration had not made him an immigration enforcement priority.
After the Biden administration allowed Chavez to reenter the country and paroled him into the country at the San Ysidro port of entry, per DHS.
Chávez Jr. is the son of a famed boxer, who shares issues with substance abuse
Chávez Jr.’s father, Julio César Chávez Sr., is a multiple-time world champion in three different weight divisions. Chávez Sr. reportedly grew up in an abandoned railroad car with his five sisters and four brothers, according to a 1993 article by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The father is considered one of the most beloved athletes in Mexican history and a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
During Chávez Jr.’s childhood, his father would regularly take him and his brother into the ring before fights.
However, Chávez Jr. has also posted multiple videos on TikTok in which he accuses his father of abuse.
Chávez Sr. struggled with drugs, especially alcohol and cocaine.
“At first I [could] control it, but I just needed more alcohol and more cocaine and more and more,” Chavez Sr. told NPR in a 2015 interview. “That’s when the problems really started. That’s when the failures began, the defeats.”
Chavez Jr. also developed a drug habit.
In 2009, Chávez Jr. tested positive for furosemide, a diuretic that can be used for weight cutting or as a masking agent for other substances. This resulted in a suspension and fine. In 2012, after losing to Sergio Martinez, he tested positive for marijuana. He received a fine and a nine-month suspension. In 2017, he tested positive for marijuana before a fight with Canelo Alvarez.
Then in 2020, Chávez Jr. was suspended indefinitely for refusing to take a drug test.
When Chávez Jr. was arrested on gun charges in January 2024, he was later freed on a $50,000 bond on the condition he go to a residential drug treatment facility.
Chávez Jr. built a successful boxing career before becoming one of Paul’s most legitimate opponents
Chávez Jr. won his first title in 2009 in the World Boxing Council Latino super featherweight division. The next year he won the vacant WBC silver middleweight crown, defeating John Duddy by unanimous decision.
In June 2011, Chávez Jr. won his greatest victory at that point, defeating Sebastian Zbik by majority decision in the WBC middleweight title in Los Angeles.
He then successfully defended the crown three times against Peter Manfredo Jr., Marco Antonio Rubio and Andy Lee.
Chávez Jr. made his pay-per-view debut in 2012 against Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez of Argentina, who is 11 years older than Chavez Jr., but it proved to be his first loss. Martinez defeated Chávez by unanimous decision.
After the fight, Chávez was suspended for nine months and fined $900,000 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission after he tested positive for marijuana.
In 2017, Chávez Jr. fought Canelo Alvarez in Las Vegas in his second pay-per-view fight, but lost that one too by unanimous decision.
He stopped fighting for two years, and then in 2019 he lost to former middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs in Las Vegas. Chávez Jr. then fought again in Mexico, including a loss to former mixed martial arts champion Anderson Silva by split decision in 2021.
After a three-year break from the ring, in which Chávez Jr. was dealing with his legal and substance issues, he returned last July, beating Uriah Hall in Tampa, Florida.
Then came his highly-anticipated match with Jake Paul in Anaheim last weekend, where the YouTuber won by unanimous decision to earn an official WBA cruiserweight ranking.
And then after news of the Mexican’s arrest on Thursday, Paul took to X to post an American flag emoji.
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