Chavez Jr. Defeats Sanchez, Fails To Impress

Let me be the first to say this: light middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (34-0-1, 27 KOs) will never win a major belt for as long as he boxes. On Saturday night, Chavez Jr. went up against handpicked opponent Ray Sanchez (20-2), whom Chavez’s people tried to pump up as a dangerous power puncher. I actually bought into what they were saying until seconds into the bout when I saw that Sanchez has next to no power, at least in terms of major fighters go in the light middleweight division.

Regardless, Sanchez appeared to be the better fighter of the two in the early rounds, using his superior handspeed, punching arsenal and ring movement to cause Chavez plenty of problems. Most of the punching was done by Sanchez in the early going, as Chavez tended to wait for long periods, and then loading up on his shots whenever he would throw them.

I had no problem with Chavez putting a lot of power into his shots, but he took a lot of head shots in between throwing his own punches, mostly for lack of having any kind of defense. Chavez would wade forward, head first, almost inviting Sanchez to land punches. Being no fool, Sanchez obliged Chavez, hitting him with countless headshots and making Chavez look like one of the worst prospects you’d ever seen. However, the worst aspect of Chavez’s game was his lack of handspeed.

He really is slow, let me tell you. At first glance, he looks somewhat like a young Oscar De La Hoya, yet when he punches, you see none of the speed or combinations that De La Hoya used to throw in his prime. I’ve never been a fan of De la Hoya, but after watching Chavez Jr., I now realize how good De La Hoya is. Enough of De La Hoya. By the 6th round, Sanchez was exhausted and ready to go, not because of anything Chavez had done, but rather because of what appeared to be poor conditioning.

At this point, Chavez threw several right hands that hurt Sanchez. Chavez quickly followed up with a storm of punches while Sanchez was covering up on the ropes, sending him to the canvas on his knees. The referee them moved in and halted the bout.