Chavez decisions Lyell, will face Zbik next

By Michael Lieberman: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) looked positively huge tonight compared to his smaller opponent junior middleweight journeyman fighter Billy Lyell (22-9, 4 KO’s), beating him by an 10 round unanimous decision at the Estadio Banorte, in Culiacan, Snialoa, Mexico. Lyell took a lot of punishment but refused to quit or get knocked off his feet in the one-sided fight. But what was so shocking about the fight was how much bigger Chavez Jr. looked compared to Lyell.

Chavez jr. must have put on at least 10 pounds, maybe more, of water weight after weighing in for the middleweight bout. The 6-foot Chavez Jr. looked like a light heavyweight (175 pounds) facing a small 154 pound junior middleweight. Lyell was simply too small and too weak do hurt Chavez or even back him up in the fight. It sure helped Chavez that they picked out a small, light hitting fighter like Lyell rather than a real middleweight with power.

With his win on Saturday night against Lyell, Chavez Jr. will now face the WBC middleweight paper champion Sebastian Zbik (30-0, 10 KO’s), who was recently handed the WBC title by the World Boxing Council without throwing a punch. The WBC stripped the WBC champion Sergio Martinez, gave him a title called “Emeritus,” and then put Zbik, a fighter who is like a more mobile version of John Duddy, in the position where he has to defend against Chavez. This is really the only way I could see Chavez Jr. ever winning a real title and the WBC basically lobbed it up for Chavez Jr. by appointing the Duddy-like Zbik as the new champion. Zbik is almost identical to Duddy, except that he doesn’t punch as hard and he moves more. Duddy is a better fighter than Zbik, and Chavez Jr. should easily get by Zbik with no problems and will then be the new paper champion. Notice how the WBC didn’t appoint unbeaten knockout artist David Lemieux as the champion? That’s a fight that Chavez Jr. would likely lose. It’s very convenient that the slow and weak punching Zbik was made champion and not Lemieux. This makes it easy for Chavez.

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