Chavez Jr. to fight on September 11th in Mexico City

By Jim Dower: unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) will be fighting a tune-up bout on September 11th against a still to be determined opponent in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. Don’t expect much in terms of a competitive match-up for the young 23-year-old son of a legend for this fight, as Chavez Jr. has a big money fight coming up on December 4th against former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) at the Cowboy Stadium, in Arlington, Texas.

Chavez’s promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, isn’t about to let his golden goose get put in with a dangerous opponent before the Pavlik bout. The purpose of Chavez Jr. fighting on September 11th is for him to get a little more experience under his new trainer Freddie Roach, work on a few things with Chavez’s game, before putting him in with the dangerous puncher Pavlik.

Chavez Jr. could be serving as a sparring partner for fellow Top Rank stablemate Manny Pacquiao if the Filipino star chooses to fight Antonio Margarito next, according to Dan Rafael. Chavez should be able to do a decent job mimicking Margarito’s aggressive body attack, it not his pressure style of fighting and high punch output. The knock on Chavez is that he doesn’t always throw enough punches in his fights. Part of the reason for this could be because of stamina issues in the past. Chavez, before signing on with Roach, always looked at least 10 pounds to heavy for his fights and would have problems at times fading down the stretch run.

However, Chavez looked a lot better in his first fight with Roach on June 26th, going 12 rounds and easily beating John Duddy. Chavez showed no stamina problems whatsoever in the fight and actually looked to be getting stronger as the rounds wore on. This is only one fight, of course, and Chavez could revert back to the tired-looking fighter he was previously. That probably won’t matter for Chavez’s next fight in September, because Arum will likely match him up soft with someone he can easily beat. But against the hard punching Pavlik, if Chavez makes it into the later rounds, Pavlik’s pressure and huge power could be a big problem for Chavez to try and deal with.

You’d have to think that Roach and Arum really believe that Chavez Jr. can beat Pavlik in this fight. Otherwise they wouldn’t put him in with a slugger with the power and experience that Pavlik has. They could be under the impression that Pavlik, due to his loss to Sergio Martinez last April, can be out-boxed by Chavez Jr and this would be a quick way to make the 23-year-old Chavez a big star in boxing. But this also could go really badly for Chavez if Pavlik turns up in shape and is able to cut off the ring on Chavez and take him out. All it will take is one mistake by Chavez for Pavlik to end matters.

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