News – Chavez Jr. Interested in Pacquiao Bout; Valero Doesn’t Want Prescott

By Jim Dower: Undefeated light middleweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (39-0-1, 29 KOs) is reportedly interested in a fight with Manny Pacquiao and feels that it would be “an honor” to fight him. Chavez Jr., 23, would appear to be the least likely opponent that Pacquiao would be interested in fighting for a number of reasons, starting with Chavez Jr’s size. Julio fights as a light middleweight, and it would probably be quite difficult for him to get down to what would likely be a bout at 140.

I think Chavez Jr. could do it but he’d be in terrible shape for the fight. Chavez Jr. would have his hands full as it is against a fighter as talented as Pacquiao, but by coming in at a lower weight than he normally fights in, Chavez Jr. would in all likelihood get knocked out even faster and would send a lot of boxing fans home angry for having wasted their money.

Besides the weight issue, Chavez Jr. has fought largely no one at this point in his six year pro career and has struggled against several of the B-level opponents that have been put in front of him. To say that Chavez Jr’s ring record is slightly inflated would be making a huge understatement, because virtually all of the opponents are the typical C and D-level fighters that boxers inflate their records.

So Chavez Jr. would be making a huge step up in competition if Pacquiao were to decide to fight him. It would be not really fair to Chavez, because he’s not ready for a fighter like Pacquiao at this point and I can’t say that he ever will judging by Chavez Jr’s last fight against Luciano Cuello March. Chavez fought well early on, but like in his first fight with Matt Vanda in July 2008, Chavez Jr. faded badly and took a lot of punishment from Cuello.

Valero Not Interested in Prescott

The Sweet science website is reporting that World Boxing Council lightweight champion Edwin Valero (25-0, 25 KOs) isn’t going to be fighting lightweight contender Breidis Prescott on July 24th. Apparently, Valero, 27, is interested in fighting big named opponents.

The problem here is that there are no big-named fighters that currently available to fight Valero. Juan Manuel Marquez, the WBO lightweight champion, is lined up to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in July, and even if that fight weren’t on the table, Marquez would likely opt to fight someone else rather than the green Valero.

Valero is also interested in fighting Urbano Antillon, Joel Casamayor or Juan Diaz. None of those fighters are hugely popular, though, which makes me wonder if Valero has another reason for not wanting a bout with the hard-hitting Prescott.

At 5’11”, Prescott, 26, is five inches taller than the 5’6” Valero and appears to punch just as hard, if not harder than Valero. This would be a tough fight for Valero to win under any circumstances because Prescott has a great chin, and is able to box from the inside and outside with great effectiveness.

If Valero couldn’t take Prescott out with something, Edwin would be in great danger of being knocked out himself or out-boxed by the taller Prescott. For this reason, I had a feeling that this fight might not come off. Simply put, Valero doesn’t have the size or the experience to be taking on a fighter like Prescott at this point.

Although Valero has put together an impressive record with 25 knockouts in 25 fights, most of those opponents have been mediocre quality fighters. Even the best names on Valero’s record, Vicente Mosquera and Antonio Pitalua, really aren’t that impressive. As such, Valero’s knockout record appears to be greatly inflated and perhaps not a true indication of Valero’s power.

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