Roach impressed with how Chavez Jr. is looking in training for Duddy fight

By William Mackay: Trainer Freddie Roach is impressed with his pupil, number #1 ranked WBC junior middleweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s), who will be fighting middleweight contender John Duddy (29-1, 18 KO’s) on June 26th in the Latin Fury 15 PPV card at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas. Dan Rafael of ESPN, quotes Roach as saying “He [Chavez Jr.] has good skills, has a nice pop on his punch and does everything I ask for in the ring. I am working with him to sit down on his punches, not move so much while throwing.” Chavez, 24, is what you would call a diamond in the rough.

He’s got some talent as you can see when watching his fights, but there are some many glaring flaws there as well. It’s hard to imagine Chavez Jr. succeeding at the world level with the huge amount of problems in his game. This is why it’s going to probably take Roach a considerable amount of time for him to teach Chavez Jr. how to fight and fix his problems with his stamina, offense and defense. There’s a lot that needs to be fixed by the time that Chavez meets up with the 30-year-old Duddy on June 26th at the Alamodome.

The good news is that Duddy is almost as flawed as Chavez Jr., with equally poor defensive skills, slow hands and a poor footwork. Chavez Jr. has a chance, not good one mind you, to beat Duddy next month if he can stick to whatever game plan that Roach comes up with to try and beat Duddy. It would be best for Chavez not to try and slug with Duddy, because that could lead to Chavez wearing out fast. Duddy sets a high pace and Chavez has major problems with his endurance. Duddy could end up wearing Chavez down if he can get him to fight at his pace. Roach has to keep Chavez Jr. under control, make him use his jab more and pick his spots if he wants to win this fight.

Chavez isn’t that skilled at fighting on the outside and prefers to fight in close. That’s not good for the 6’ foot Chavez, because he’s going to need to stay on the outside against Duddy if he wants to have any chance at beating him. I think Chavez will be out of his depth in this fight. While I think Roach can teach him a few things in the short period of time he’s been working with him, I think there’s still too many holes in Chavez’ game for him to beat an experienced fighter like Duddy.

That’s not to say that Duddy is a great fighter, because clearly he’s not. But Duddy is good fringe contender, who deserves to be ranked at the bottom of the top tier. I see Chavez Jr. as entirely undeserving of his #1 ranking by the WBC. I honestly see Chavez Jr. as a 2nd tier junior middleweight at this point in his career. He hasn’t faced any top level fighters as of yet, and he’s struggled badly against B level fighters, barely beating some of them and fighting to a draw with one.

Roach can probably string Chavez along for another two or three years if he keeps him against fringe contenders and B level fighters, but I don’t have much faith in Chavez’s ability to beat a top fighter in the junior middleweight or the middleweight divisions.

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