Julio César Chávez Jr., a former world middleweight champion and son of Mexican boxing legend Julio César Chávez, was deported to Mexico on Monday and is now imprisoned in Sonora.
Chávez was detained by U.S. immigration agents in Los Angeles, California, in July, just days after losing a fight to U.S. boxer Jake Paul.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said at the time that the 39-year-old Culiacán native was a “criminal illegal alien.”
Chávez allegedly overstayed his U.S. visa and lied on a green card application.
The DHS said on July 3 that it was “processing him for expedited removal from the United States,” and noted that Chávez has an “active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition, and explosives.”
It also said that Chávez is “believed to be an affiliate of the Sinaloa Cartel, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.”
The DHS told U.S. media outlets this week that Chávez was deported to Mexico on Monday.
On Tuesday, United States Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson posted a photo to social media of the boxer apparently being escorted across the border by U.S. immigration agents.
@DHSgov deported Julio César Chávez Jr. to Mexican authorities to face charges under his country’s justice system. This action reflects the strong cooperation between our governments, showing that collaboration delivers results and advances the security of both nations. pic.twitter.com/25GuBv0axz
— Embajador Ronald Johnson (@USAmbMex) August 19, 2025
“@DHSgov deported Julio César Chávez Jr. to Mexican authorities to face charges under his country’s justice system. This action reflects the strong cooperation between our governments, showing that collaboration delivers results and advances the security of both nations,” Johnson wrote on X.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday morning that her government was informed that Chávez was going to arrive in Mexico. She noted that there was a valid warrant for his arrest in Mexico.
Sheinbaum said in July that her government would seek the deportation of the boxer so he could serve in Mexico any sentence resulting from the charges he faces.
Behind bars in Hermosillo
Chávez was deported to Mexico across the border between Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, on Monday.
He was subsequently transferred to a federal prison in Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora.
Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo acknowledged that Chávez was being held at the Federal Social Rehabilitation Center in Hermosillo.
Federal Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero has said that the investigation into the boxer’s alleged criminal activities began in 2019. A warrant for his arrest was issued in 2023. Gertz said last month that federal prosecutors are “ready” to present their case against the boxer.
It appears likely that Chávez will plead not guilty to the organized crime and firearms charges he faces in Mexico.
After his arrest, a Los Angeles-based lawyer for the boxer, Michael Goldstein, said that the allegations against his client were “outrageous.”
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 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.”
The Associated Press reported that he was freed after his second arrest on a US $50,000 bond and on the condition that he went to a residential drug treatment facility. “The case is still pending, with Chávez reporting his progress regularly,” the news agency said Wednesday.
Chávez’s wife is Frida Muñoz Román, who was previously married to Édgar Guzmán López, the deceased son of convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
His father, Julio César Chávez, was a world boxing champion in the 1980s and ’90s, and earlier this year participated in a “National Boxing Class” led by President Sheinbaum.
After his son’s arrest in Los Angeles last month, Chávez said he had full confidence in his innocence.
The Associated Press reported that Chávez Sr. “was a massive celebrity in the 1980s and ’90s who mixed social circles with drug dealers and claimed to have been friends with drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes.”
With reports from El Financiero, Milenio and AP
