WBC rules that Julio Chavez Jr. must fight Sergio Martinez next if they win their next fights

By Boxing News - 01/05/2012 - Comments

Image: WBC rules that Julio Chavez Jr. must fight Sergio Martinez next if they win their next fightsBy Dan Ambrose: The World Boxing Council has given their vote of approval for a Sergio Martinez vs. WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. bout as long as the two fighters win their next fights. Chavez Jr. must mandatorily face Martinez next, the WBC says.

Chavez Jr. faces Marco Antonio Rubio on February 4th in San Antonio, Texas, and Martinez battles Mathew Macklin on March 17th. The winner of these two separate fights will then be meeting in the next fight. It’s likely that Chavez Jr. and Martinez are the ones that will emerge from those bouts. That’s going to put a lot of pressure on Chavez’s promoter Bob Arum, who has been resistant to the idea of letting Chavez Jr. face Martinez.

Arum likely will choose not to let Chavez Jr. take this fight, so you expect him to opt to look at other alternatives. Arum wants to keep Chavez Jr. unbeaten and the best way to do that is to avoid Martinez or guys like Martinez at all costs. Although Chavez Jr. would still likely have a lot of fans if he were to fight Martinez and get knocked out, the money flow might not be what it is now.

HBO is showing Chavez’s fights, but they may have a change of mind if Chavez Jr. gets knocked out in one or two rounds by Martinez, which is about the best I can see Chavez Jr. doing against the hard hitting Argentinian. So while it’s nice that the WBC is saying that Chavez Jr. will have to face Martinez next if they can get past their next opponents, it still likely won’t have any real meaning if Arum continues to be against a Chavez-Martinez fight in the future.



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