Mexico

Cesar Chavez Jr jailed after US deportation

Author: Ben Collins BBC Sport journalist Source: BBC News:

August 20, 2025 at 06:27

GETTY IMAGES, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr's past two fights have been against ex-UFC fighter Uriah Hall and influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul

Former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr has been jailed in his native Mexico after his arrest in the United States in July.

The Mexican boxer was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Studio City, Los Angeles, five days after fighting Jake Paul in nearby Anaheim.

Mexican prosecutors allege the 39-year-old acted as a henchman for the powerful Sinaloa cartel, which Washington designated a foreign terrorist organisation earlier this year.

He has now been detained in a prison in the northern Mexico state of Sonora, the country's national arrest registry showed on Tuesday, as he awaits charges.

It said that the boxer was arrested at a checkpoint in the border city of Nogales on Tuesday morning and transferred to a federal institution in Sonora's capital of Hermosillo.

Mexico's president Claudia Sheinbaum said in her daily news conference that he had been deported.

She previously said there was a warrant for his arrest for charges of arms trafficking and organised crime, and that prosecutors were working on the case.

The Mexican attorney general's office declined to comment.

Chavez Jr, who held the WBC middleweight title from 2011 to 2012, is the son of three-weight world champion Julio Cesar Chavez.

Chavez Jr's lawyer and family have rejected the accusation that he has cartel connections.