By Dan Ambrose: Sergio Martinez is really hoping that No.1 ranked WBC contender Marco Antonio Rubio (53-5-1, 46 KO’s) will beat WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (44-0-1, 31 KO’s) in their World Boxing Council approved bout on February 4th at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

This was supposed to have been the 36-year-old Martinez’s fight instead of Rubio’s bout. The WBC had voted to make Martinez, the former WBC middleweight champion, the next challenger for Chavez. However, Chavez Jr. then spoke with WBC president Jose Suliaman and asked for permission to make the fight with Rubio on the 4th of February rather than face the tougher fight against Martinez and Sulaiman agreed.

Martinez is now out in the cold and understandably angry for having missed his chance at Chavez Jr. Martinez doesn’t have a lot of respect for Chavez Jr. and sees him as a fake champion.

Since he can’t be the one to personally expose Chavez Jr. as being a paper champion, Martinez is hoping that Rubio ends the Chavez Jr. hype machine by beating him badly, giving him his first loss and taking his title on February 4th.

Whatever happens, this is going to be a really tough fight for Chavez Jr. because Rubio can really punch when he loads up on his shots. At 5’10”, he’s not as big as the 6-foot Chavez Jr. and will likely not weigh as much as him either. However, unless Chavez Jr. comes at Rubio with a lot of power the way that former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik did in his 9th round stoppage win over Rubio in February 2009, we could see Chavez Jr. suffer his first loss.

Chavez Jr. picked up the WBC belt last June when he beat then champion Sebastian Zbik by a 12 round majority decision. Chavez Jr. won the fight but took a lot of hard head shots and looked huge at 180lbs when he stepped into the ring.

After winning the belt, Chavez Jr. defended it for the first time last month against Peter Manfredo Jr., beating him by a 5th round TKO. It was the perfect opponent for Chavez Jr. to fight, as Manfredo Jr. has little speed or power and couldn’t do much against the bigger Chavez Jr.