Julio César Chávez Jr., former world middleweight champion and son of Mexican boxing legend Julio César Chávez, was detained by U.S. immigration agents on Wednesday in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, just days after losing a fight to Jake Paul in Anaheim.
The agents detained Chávez outside his home, on claims that he overstayed his visa and lied on a green card application. He will likely be deported to Mexico, where he faces organized crime charges, including trafficking of arms, ammunition and explosives.
President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed during her morning press conference on Friday, that the Mexican government will seek the deportation of the boxer so he can serve in Mexico any sentence resulting from the charges.
“We expect that he will be deported and could serve his sentence in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said. “The Attorney General’s Office is working on that process.”
Sheinbaum added that she hadn’t known that Chávez faced charges in Mexico.
“No, I personally wasn’t aware of it,” she said. “Yesterday, as soon as the news came out, we contacted the prosecutor’s office, who told me ‘Yes, there is an arrest warrant in Mexico.'”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had said there are suspicions about Chávez Jr.’s ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. His defense has denied such accusations, calling them unfounded and sensationalist.
In Mexico, the boxer is accused of connections to a Nogales, Sonora, arms trafficking cell affiliated with Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. U.S. agencies identified the arms trafficking group in 2018, according to the newspaper Reforma.
In 2019, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security filed a complaint against the group with the Mexican Attorney General’s Office. Following the complaint, the Attorney General’s Office tapped the suspects’ phones.
Based on the wiretaps, authorities learned that when fellow Sinaloa Cartel associates made mistakes, Chávez Jr. allegedly beat them as punishment.
With this information, in January 2023, a federal judge in Hermosillo issued 13 arrest warrants, one of them for the boxer.
On July 2, ICE arrested Mexican boxer and criminal illegal alien Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
He is now being processed for expedited removal from the United States. This Sinaloa Cartel affiliate has an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and… pic.twitter.com/c4QeRVpCEr
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 3, 2025
In a statement, the Chávez Jr. family expressed their dismay and asked the public not to make any premature judgments.
“Julio is, above all, a son, a father, and a human being who has faced multiple challenges in his personal and professional life,” the family said. “As a family, we respectfully ask that due process be guaranteed.”
Who is Julio César Chávez Jr.?
Julio César Chávez Jr. was born in 1986 in Culiacán, Sinaloa. He started his boxing career at 17. His greatest achievement was becoming the WBC world middleweight champion in June 2011, a title he successfully defended three times before losing it in 2012.
Throughout his career, he has faced several problems, including doping suspensions (furosemide in 2009 and marijuana in 2012), and criticism for a perceived lack of discipline. In 2012, he was convicted of drunken driving in Los Angeles and sentenced to 13 days in jail. In January 2024, he was again arrested in Los Angeles for possession of an illegal AR-style “ghost rifle.”
With reports from CBS News, El Nacional, Reforma and El Universal
