By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
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Chris Farina/Top RankPulling his weight: Freddie Roach says Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been no slouch in the gym.

Nearly seven years into his pro career, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. remains little more than a fighter with a money-making name, a fan base and a padded record. But now 24 and questioning his place in the sport, the son of the legend decided it was time to see what he was really made of.

So with questions about his dedication and work habits hanging over his head, Chavez made a radical change.

He broke from his trainers, uncles Rodolfo Chavez and Miguel Molleda; left Mexico for Los Angeles; and hired Freddie Roach, regarded by many as the No. 1 trainer in boxing, in an effort to see how far he can go.

Chavez (40-0-1, 30 KOs) and Roach have been together for only about a month, but Roach will lead his new protégé into battle for the first time when he faces Ireland's John Duddy (29-1, 18 KOs) -- by far Chavez's best opponent -- for a vacant interim middleweight title on Top Rank's "Latin Fury 15" pay-per-view Saturday (9 p.m. ET, $39.95) from the Alamodome in San Antonio, where Chavez will be the overwhelming crowd favorite.

"It came to a point in my career that if I wanted to do better, if I wanted bigger and better things, I had to make a change," Chavez said, through translator Ricardo Jimenez, of his reasons for seeking out Roach. "I did it because I knew I needed it for my career. I still want to do great things in boxing and that's what motivated me. I thought, 'Do I want to stay where I am or do I want to get better?' This opportunity came and I took it and I'm very happy that I did."

The bout will be Chavez's first since a seven-month Nevada suspension ended June 14. He was suspended after outpointing Troy Rowland on the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto undercard in November because he tested positive for a diuretic. The result of that fight was changed to a no contest.

During his suspension, Chavez, a huge Pacquiao fan, was invited by Top Rank head matchmaker Bruce Trampler to Roach's Wild Card gym in Hollywood, Calif., to watch Pacquiao train for his March fight against Joshua Clottey.

After watching the session, Chavez had something of an epiphany.

"He realized, like everybody else who knows boxing, that there was a tremendous improvement in Pacquiao when he went with Freddie," Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said. "Julio was talking to Trampler, and Trampler seized the opening and said, 'Why don't you come up to the Wild Card gym and watch one of Manny's training sessions?' He did and the kid's eyes opened wide, and after the training session was over, Manny pulled him aside and said he should train with Freddie.

"It was like a light bulb went off in the kid's head. So we worked things out with Freddie and I was elated."

Chavez said he knew he wanted to train with Roach as soon as he saw Pacquiao in training at the gym.

"This is what I want. This is what I need," he said. "You have to earn it in boxing, and I think Freddie has earned being called the best trainer in the world. He has shown that to me and that I made a great decision."

Chavez said his father, the great Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., was happy with his decision to go with Roach.

"We had talked about it, and he said that maybe I needed somebody to take me to the next level," Chavez said. "We had thought about some guys and thinking about doing something. When I told him about Freddie Roach, he got very excited. Freddie isn't going to waste his time with a nobody or someone that has no talent. By Freddie taking me, my father felt that Freddie gave me confidence that he would take me to that next level."

Roach had heard all the talk about Chavez's supposedly poor work habits but was willing to give him a chance -- even though Roach joked that there was an over/under among the guys at the gym that Chavez wouldn't last a week.

It looked like Roach might be right when Chavez took a week longer to arrive in California than had been planned. A holdup occurred because of the paperwork for his work visa. But after he arrived, Roach was pleasantly surprised with how hard Chavez worked and the promise he showed.

"There were a lot of warning signs about how he is lazy and doesn't want to work and would he last a week with me," Roach said. "He's a great kid, great to work with and is very disciplined. He gets up in the morning and does his roadwork every day, comes in the gym and sparred up to 12 rounds with three sparring partners. Overall it was a real good experience."

Roach said he encountered no resistance from Chavez to do things the way he wanted them done.

"Whatever I asked him to do, he did," Roach said. "He's a very capable person and he knows boxing."

Chavez is happy with the decision to train with Roach.

"Without a doubt there have been a lot of changes for this training camp," Chavez said. "I have never been with a trainer so capable. I had heard great things about him, but until you go through a regimen like his, you don't know what he's capable of doing. I know I'm in the best physical shape that I've ever been in and I am well prepared. I am happy that I made the decision to go train with him and I think it will pay off and you'll see it."

Roach is a four-time trainer of the year with a glittering track record. Chavez admitted he was a little nervous with Roach at first.

"Any time you make a move to the unknown you get nervous," Chavez said. "I wasn't sure what to expect, but once I made the decision I knew I would be capable of doing anything he asked of me. I knew I could do a lot of things and he wouldn't be here now if I couldn't. I needed that direction now and he has given it to me.

"I am sure there were some doubters out there. I know a lot of people didn't think I could make it there, but I knew I could. I know how tough I am and Freddie's the judge of that. He knows what I can do. I needed someone to direct me and show me what I needed to do and the discipline I needed. I'm real happy. Nobody forced me to do it. I am just happy I did it."

Andrew Yates/AFP/Getty ImagesMarco Antonio Barrera wants to go where no Mexican has gone before: The land of four world titles.

Although Marco Antonio Barrera, the all-time great former three-division champion, is just 2-3 in his last five fights and hasn't fought since losing a bloody five-round technical decision to Amir Khan in March 2009, he returns on Saturday's Chavez-Duddy undercard hoping to jump-start a push toward a title in a fourth weight class -- something no Mexican has done.

"The idea is to fight for a world title in a short time," Barrera said. "I know that I can and my body is good. I have experience. I don't know the name of a champion that I will fight but I know that I am ready and will prove it in this fight. After that I will fight any champion."

Barrera (68-7, 43 KOs) first must beat Brazil's Adilton DeJesus (25-4, 20 KOs) in a 10-round lightweight bout, his first since joining promoter Bob Arum's Top Rank, which so often was on the other side from Barrera, such as in all three of his battles with Erik Morales.

Now, Arum and Barrera are on the same side and Arum hopes to guide him to another title before the end of the year.

"He gave fighters that I was promoting fits," Arum said. "Now I am happy that we are in the same corner and I hope to have him, very shortly, fight for a lightweight championship, maybe against [Humberto] Soto or maybe against [Miguel] Acosta. Both fighters are under contract with Top Rank, so he'll have that opportunity to fight for a fourth world title [and] be the first Mexican to win world titles in four weight divisions. So I look forward to being in his corner when that happens.

"My goal is to do the rest of his fights for his brilliant career and to bring to the point where he wins a fourth championship and maybe has a defense or two, make some really good money and send him off to a proper retirement."

Former welterweight champ Zab Judah (38-6, 26 KOs) will have trainer Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, a former light heavyweight champion, in his corner assisting his father and head trainer, Yoel Judah, for his July 16 (ESPN2) fight with Jose Armando Santa Cruz (28-4, 17 KOs) at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

Judah, who is training in Las Vegas, meets Santa Cruz at 143 pounds on his way back to junior welterweight.

"I know boxing backwards and forwards, but you know after all these years sometimes I can tell Zab all day long what to do and it just doesn't stick. With Eddie, there's new energy," Yoel Judah said.

Said Muhammad, who trains light heavyweight standout Chad Dawson, "Yoel asked me to come on board. We go way back, grew up together in Brooklyn. They needed a new voice. We train every day except Sunday. I do pads with him. We box, hit the speed bag and heavy bag. Saturdays we hit Mount Charleston at 6 a.m. That's 5 miles of uphill running. It's tough work. We're working on head movement, hard shots to the body, finishing up on top. I've worked with Zab before. I see a difference in him now. A good difference."