By Jim Dower: WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (45-0-1, 31 KO’s) had too much size, speed and youth for the lighter Marco Antonio Rubio (53-6-1, 46 KO’s) in beating the challenger by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night in front of a large 14,000 crowd at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas.

The judges’ scores were a little more one-sided than I saw the fight. The judges scored it 118-110 116-112 and 115-113. I agreed with the last score, as there were too many close rounds that could have gone either way and I saw Rubio winning a lot of them based on his cleaner landing shots. Chavez Jr. weighed in at 181 on the night of the fight and he looked a lot bigger than Rubio.

The extra weight that Chavez Jr. put on was used to his benefit by being able to muscle Rubio in close, bump, him, lean on him and wrestle him. However, the extra weight didn’t translate into a lot of power, because for some reason Chavez Jr. seemed really weak even though he was packing the size of a small cruiserweight.

Chavez Jr. said afterwards that the strain of having to take eight pounds off the last two days before the fight left him without enough energy for him to score a knockout. I don’t buy that. Chavez Jr’s punches looked no weaker than they’ve been in his previous fights. Chavez Jr. just isn’t a really big puncher. What he has going for him is huge size in terms of weight, and Chavez Jr. used that size to push around Rubio and take whatever punches he landed and keep coming forward.

Rubio fought his best in the last four rounds of the fight when he was able to land a lot of hard shots in close. However, Chavez Jr. never stopped punching and was able to get a clear edge in connect percentage.

After the fight, Chavez Jr. reportedly departed from his dressing room without taking the post-fight urine test for performance enhancing drugs. This set Rubio’s team in a rage and they will be bringing it to the attention of the Texas State Athletic Commission and the World Boxing Council to try and get a rematch or possibly the fight results to be overturned and changed to a no contest. It’s unclear why Chavez Jr. cut out without taking the tests because his experienced trainer Freddie Roach should have known better than to let his fighter leave without being tested.

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Donaire outclasses Vazquez Jr.

Nonito Donaire (28-1, 18 KO’s) found it tough in moving up in weight and facing former WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez (21-2-1, 18 KO’s), whom he beat by a 12 round split decision to win the vacant WBO super bantamweight title by the scores 117-110 and 117-110 for Donaire, and 115-112 for Vazquez Jr.

Donaire did more than enough to win the fight over a mostly defensive Vazquez Jr., but Donaire wasn’t all that impressive and didn’t look like the same overpowering fighter he had been at flyweight, super flyweight and bantamweight. This was a rare fight for Donaire where he was facing an opponent that was almost the same size as him and he wasn’t able to just steamroll the guy. Donaire still looked to be at least 10 pounds heavier and an inch taller, but compared to the huge size advantages he’d had in the lower weights, this was more of an even fight size-wise.

Donaire took the fight to a timid looking Vazquez, connecting with left hooks, body shots and right hands to the head. Donaire had his best luck when connecting with his uppercuts and was able to knock Vazquez down with a hard right uppercut followed by a grazing left that sent Vazquez Jr. down in the 9th. That was the only knockdown by either fighter. Vazquez Jr. wasn’t bothered by Donaire’s power but made sure that he kept his guard up to prevent him from landing his left hooks. Donaire was still able to land an occasional left hook but not enough for him to produce the desired results of rendering Vazquez Jr. unconscious. Donaire wasted a lot of time trying to score a one-punch knockout and didn’t make adjustments when it was pretty apparent that Vazquez Jr. wasn’t going to be going down.

After the fight Donaire revealed a bloody left hand after his glove was removed. Donaire said he hurt it early in the fight and that got in the way of him knocking Vazquez Jr. It sounds like a reasonable excuse but it’s the second fight now where Donaire hasn’t been able to score a knockout. If he keeps making excuses like this it’s going to make Donaire look like someone who can’t accept the truth that he doesn’t have the same punching power at super bantamweight and bantamweight that he did at flyweight and super flyweight.

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Martirosyan destroys an overmatched Lowry

In yet another one of his career-long stay busy fights, unbeaten junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan (32-0, 20 KO’s) destroyed 41-year-old Troy Lowry (28-12, 17 KO’s) by a 3rd round TKO in a two knockdown performance in retaining his World Boxing Council (WBC) Silver junior middleweight crown.

Martirosyan had Lowry down on the canvas in the 1st round from a beautifully placed left to the midsection and then later he put him down for the final time in the 3rd with a right hand to the head. In between those knockdowns was a disgustingly one-sided fight with Martirosyan bludgeoning the older, slower, smaller and weaker Lowry with right hands and left hooks to the head and body.

This was a really bad fight to watch because of how one-sided it was and you just don’t know what’s going through the heads of Martirosyan’s promoters to be STILL matching the guy against this level of opposition as he approaches his 8th years as a pro. It’s baffling and makes one wonder if they have doubts in Martirosyan’s ability to beat 1st level or even 2nd level opposition, because Lowry was more of a 3rd tier fighter and did little more than take shots in each round.

Martirosyan put Lowry down with a left to the body in the opening seconds of the fight and then went after him right hands one after another. Martirosyan’s form completely disappeared as he wasn’t even worrying about anything coming back at him. His main focus was to try and get Lowry out of there as fast as possible. To Lowry’s credit, he showed a great chin in taking all of Martirosyan’s shots and I have my doubts that Martirosyan would have been able to stand up to even a quarter of the punishment that Lowry took.

Lowry suffered a cut on the bridge of his nose in the 2nd round and the cut bled continuously.

Overall, terrible match-making and so utterly sad to see Martirosyan’s career being wasted like this. I had been a fan of his several years ago but lost interest in the guys’ career when I saw that it wasn’t progressing.

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In other action on the card:

Wale Omotoso TKO 6 Nestor Rosas
Ivan Najera TKO 2 David Castillo
Ricardo Valencia UD 4 Jeremy Longoria
Adam Lopez TKO 1 Richard Hernandez
Juan Saucedo KO 1 Jean Colon