By Dan Ambrose: The WBC may have said that Sergio Martinez comes next for WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. if he can successfully defend his title against Marco Antonio Rubio next month on February 4th, but Chavez’s promoter Bob Arum has other ideas for him.

According to RingTV, Arum says that Chavez Jr. will fight WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto next, as long as Cotto isn’t fighting Arum’s top cash cow fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao by then. It’s very likely that even if Cotto is fighting Manny, Arum will still have Chavez Jr. wait to fight Cotto rather than letting Chavez Jr. fight Sergio Martinez.

This is what Arum said to RingTV: “We have to do what’s best for our fighters, and for me, if Chavez is successful against Rubio, then the big fight for him – the big, big fight for him – is Miguel Cotto if Cotto is not fighting Manny.”

There’s no surprise there. Even if the WBC were to threaten to strip the 25-year-old Chavez Jr. if he didn’t go ahead and mandatorily face Martinez, then Arum would very likely then have Chavez Jr. vacate the belt rather than putting him in with Martinez for a risky fight.

I guess if anyone is going to give Chavez his first loss of his career, it’s going to be one of Arum’s own fighters that does it rather than a non-Top Rank fighter. I can understand that perfectly well because Arum can make more money with an in house fight, but it’s still not really a good thing for Chavez Jr. if he’s never tested by someone like Martinez. Who knows? Chavez Jr. might have the ability to beat Martinez, but we’ll never know for sure with Arum not letting Chavez Jr. test how good he is.

Obviously, Chavez Jr. isn’t going to rock the boat and demand that Arum put him in with Martinez. He’s making good money against lesser threats and I doubt that he wants to have everything derailed from one big left hand thrown by Martinez.

It’s sad that Arum can easily outmaneuver whatever move that Martinez’s team try to make in putting pressure on the WBC to make Chavez Jr. defend his belt against him. I suppose that the WBC will have to strip Chavez Jr. if he doesn’t face Martinez next, so Martinez will get his WBC title back at least. But I think what he really wants is the Chavez Jr. fight and that’s not something that can be forced unless the guy wants to really hold onto his title.