By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (43-0-1, 30 KO’s) defends his title for the first time on November 19th against his number #4 ranked World Boxing Council contender Peter Manfredo Jr. (37-6, 20 KO’s) at the Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas.

It’s a difficult fight to pick a winner in because both guys are so badly flawed that you really can’t get a good gauge of who’s going to come out on top in this one. Manfredo, 30, started off ranked much lower when this fight was first discussed, but the WBC has steadily pushed him up the rankings in the past few months now that the fight has been signed, and miraculously Manfredo is now at the number #4 spot. I suspect that by November 19th, the WBC will have pushed Manfredo Jr. up to number #1.

It’ll make it look a lot better that Chavez Jr. is defending his title against a top five opponent than where Manfredo Jr. was previously ranked. I don’t think Manfredo Jr. is deserving of a number #4 ranking because that puts him above fighters like Andy Lee and Darren Barker, both of which I feel are a lot better fighters than Manfredo at this time. But I still believe that the Manfredo Jr. vs. Chavez Jr. fight is basically a toss up fight because Chavez Jr. is so limited.

Chavez Jr. captured the WBC middleweight title in his last fight when he defeated the previously installed champion Sebastian Zbik by a 12 round majority decision last June. I wasn’t impressed with that performance from Chavez Jr. While he did clearly win the fight, he looked terrible in taking a lot of punishment against a fighter that really business holding down the WBC title and who had no power.

Even without power, Zbik was lighting Chavez Jr. up all night long with head shots. It was brutal to watch how truly terrible Chavez’s defense was. This is a fighter that is trained by Freddie Roach, yet he looked like someone who had failed to grasp even the beginning stages of how to defend against incoming shots.

Chavez Jr. needs to beat Manfredo Jr. any way he can in order to stay alive for a possible big money fight against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez in 2012. Bob Arum, Chavez’s promoter, and Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for Alvarez, both want this fight and it’s on course for next year as long as Chavez Jr. wins this fight and Alvarez defeats Kermit Cintron on November 26th.