Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fined $900k and suspended for using marijuana before Sergio Martinez fight

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was fined a whopping $900,000 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and suspended for nine months for using marijuana before last year's fight with Sergio Martinez.

According to the LA Times, the fine represented 30 percent of Chavez's $3 million purse for the Sept. 15 fight in Las Vegas, which he lost in his first defeat as a pro.

He could have been suspended for a year and lost his entire purse, however.

The boxer's suspension is retroactive to the night of the fight, Mexican Independence Day, according to Yahoo! news, meaning he will become eligible to fight in the US again on June 16.

It's not the first time the popular 27-year-old fighter, the son of a famous boxer by the same name, has failed a drug test.

In 2009, he tested positive for another banned substance after his fight with Troy Rowland, receiving a seven-month suspension from the Nevada commission.

Chavez told the five commissioners by phone from Mexico that he had used marijuana to curb his stress eight or nine days before the Martinez fight, the Associated Press reported.

Speaking through a translator, Chavez said:

"I know I committed a big error. It was a mistake. I let a lot of people down."

However his promoter, Bob Arum, and his lawyer, Donald Campbell, both argued that marijuana wasn’t a performance enhancing drug and that Chavez deserved credit for acknowledging that he used the drug.