Misael Rodriguez didn’t sign up to be a cast member of the new Chavez family reality show “Los Chavez” streaming on Disney+, but the build-up to his fight against Omar Chavez kind of sounds like the plotline of a particularly messy episode.

Rodriguez and Chavez will meet on another Disney-owned app in an ESPN+ streamed main event in a ten-round bout contracted at super middleweight. Chavez, known as “El Businessman,” is of course the son of the legendary Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., who has become more central to the narrative of this fight than he even normally would for a bout involving one of his sons. Rodriguez and Chavez were set to square off last October in Mexico before the bout fell apart the day of the fight.

As reported by journalist David Faitelson at the time, there was a previously agreed upon rehydration clause as stipulated by the Mexico City commission, which was brought in to preside over the event in Pachuca. Rodriguez’s trainer Robert Garcia told journalist Krystina Ramirez in the days following the incident that Chavez did not participate in the morning weigh-in alongside Rodriguez, and refused to step on the scale all the way up until after the two fighters were originally scheduled to walk to the ring, with Chavez Sr. repeatedly entering their locker room to berate them for asking his son to weigh in and not take the fight regardless. Garcia told Ramirez that he remembers the scale reading 86.6 or 86.7 kilograms, above the agreed-upon limit of 81kg, or 178 pounds. Reports afterwards indicated that Rodriguez had weighed 77.8kg, or 171.5 pounds at the morning weigh-in.

Rodriguez’s girlfriend Ana Laura Gonzalez took to TikTok, and claimed that Chavez offered Rodriguez 20 thousand pesos for every pound he was over, and also $10,000 USD in an attempt to make the fight happen. “If they had done the right thing (in the first place), why would they bribe El Chino,” she said.

After all of the hoopla, Rodriguez chose to not move forward with the fight, setting off a firestorm of conflict and subsequent press as a result.

“I’m sorry I didn’t sell myself out or lend myself to the Chavez circus,” said Rodriguez on social media afterwards. “As always, they wanted to take advantage of (me), and take advantage of his last name, until they hit a wall.”

Chavez Sr. continued his tirade on social media that night, calling Rodriguez and Garcia a “disgrace to the sport.” Days later however, he made another video apologizing to Garcia whom he described as a “dear friend,” and to Rodriguez, adding that “when you get heated you say stupid things.”

“You know, we already pretty much had that already in mind, that's the way Julio's kids are,” Garcia told The Ring. “You know, they've always been the kids that do whatever they want and get away with things that they're not supposed to, and everybody tries to back them up, especially being that their dad is a Mexican legend. Everybody in Mexico, especially in Mexico, you know, they really respect him and pretty much do whatever he says.”

Although the fight didn’t happen, Rodriguez garnered more attention than if it had the first time around. It also coincided with a viral social media clip of a man purporting to be him at a Buffalo Bills game walking away from a fight in the stands (according to Rodriguez, it was not him). The fight cancellation became social media and boxing tabloid fodder, so to speak, in addition to the widespread attention it received in Mexico, where both Rodriguez and Chavez are high profile figures.

“As a manager, I saw an opportunity, and obviously there's huge interest in the fight. So, we renegotiated a purse that was for substantially far more money than the first one, because of the attention and everything else. So we settled on a purse, which would be a career-high purse for Misael for the event, and off we went,” Rodriguez’s manager Rick Mirigian told The Ring. “To be honest with you, I anticipate or I feel there's going to be a chance that Chavez comes in overweight. So I'm just hoping that, you know, this stuff can be dealt with in advance and not necessarily, you know, minutes before they're set to enter the ring.”

In Mexico, the bout will air on TV Azteca, and some are speculating that it may be one of the most viewed fights of the year in the country, a perfect storm of two fighters with crossover fame derived from very different places.

Rodriguez won a bronze medal at middleweight at the 2016 Olympics, becoming the first Mexican fighter to medal at the Games in 16 years, breaking a surprising national drought. However, in order raise funds to get to the tournament, Rodriguez and many of his teammates panhandled on street corners and on buses in Mexico City. Photos circulated of Rodriguez with a lanyard and placard reading “Misael Rodriguez, Pan Am Games bronze medalist” asking strangers for money. Ultimately, he cobbled together enough, ultimately achieving glory for his country.

But his amateur success didn’t turn into rapid professional success. While many of his fellow 2016 medalists have become long-established champions, Rodriguez has yet to establish himself firmly as a contender. According to Mirigian, promotional issues stemming from a previous contract have caused large patches of inactivity, including a three-year layoff between 2019 and 2022, which was exacerbated by the global pandemic.

“The kid is dedicated. He's in the gym all year, last year, without even fighting. So he's dedicated. He likes to stay in shape. He's got a great heart. You know, when it comes to him as a person, he has a great heart. But also when the bell rings, he's not going to back out against nobody,” said Garcia of Rodriguez, who is also a member of the Mexican Marine corps.

What his amateur success has aided him in however, is nationwide fame. Rodriguez has starred in multiple reality shows and commercials for fast food restaurants, and his partner Gonzalez is a popular surfer and internet personality boasting close to 700,000 Instagram followers.

If Rodriguez’s climb to this stage in his career was akin to free soloing the mountain with a backpack of supplies he foraged himself, then Chavez’s has been a sherpa-led climb.

Chavez grew up walking to the ring alongside his father in some of the biggest fights of a generation, and turned pro at the age of 16 alongside his brother Julio Jr. Although he never won the world title he strived for like his brother, he enjoyed some high profile fights in Mexico leveraging his familial name, including ones against Jorge Paez Jr., and Ramon Alvarez, brother of Canelo.

Though not nearly as turbulent as his brother, Omar has had a rocky career in the public eye, which has included at least three separate retirements, and also calls from his father to retire during times when he returned to the sport. Last May, Chavez Sr. told Box Azteca that he has to “lock (Omar) up,” due to his son’s gambling addiction, and chastised him for not training when he has fights scheduled even though he needs the money due to his gambling losses. At the introductory press conference for this fight, Omar spoke about his displeasure about his inclusion and portrayal in Los Chavez, and alleged that his stepmother had made death threats towards him and was making his life “impossible.”

While both Rodriguez and Chavez’s plights are sympathetic in different ways, from a promotional standpoint, they’ve created a perfect storm, one felt outside of the hardcore boxing audience in their country.

“I think outside of Canelo right now, this is going to be one of the most popular fights in Mexico all year long,” said Mirigian. “It's not necessarily the skill level of each fighter and this massive, you know, unification on the line. It's just they're insanely popular guys, and because of the turmoil last time. And I think that, they're both going to capitalize on that, you know, assuming they get in the ring and fight this week.”

If Rodriguez is victorious, Mirigian says that he and Zanfer Promotions would like to get him two more wins in short order to keep him busy before targeting a fight against Jaime Munguia.

In other words, once the reality show is over, true reality can set in.