By Dan Ambrose: Well, it appears that WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (45-0-1, 31 KO’s) is going to ignore the request by WBC President Jose Suliaman to face his WBC mandatory challenger Sergio Martinez in his next title defense. Chavez Jr. is now set to fight on June 16th in El Paso, Texas against a still to be determined opponent. Although he still hasn’t selected who his opponent will be indications are it won’t be Martinez despite Sulaiman asking Chavez Jr. to face him next.

The word is Andy Lee won’t be facing Chavez Jr. for the June 16th date, according to Dan Rafael. Lee was mentioned as a possible opponent but he’s been ruled out for Chavez Jr’s third defense of his title. There’s been talk about Chavez Jr. facing Martin Murray, the #7 WBC contender. That could be the one that Chavez Jr. faces next. Murray recently fought WBA World middleweight champion Felix Sturm to a 12 round draw last year, and fought well until tiring late in the fight and having to settle for a draw.

Martinez could get a shot against Chavez Jr. in September, at least that’s what Chavez Jr’s father Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. said on his twitter in his brief back and forth argument with Sergio Martinez. However, the talk is that Martinez will have to accept a 70-30 purse split if he’s interested in the fight. That obviously would still be the biggest payday of Martinez’s career but it’s hard to see him accepting that offer given that he’s considered to be the best fighter in the middleweight division by many boxing writers and fans.

A 70-30 offer would be a good way of getting Martinez out of Chavez Jr’s hair because he’ll likely never agree to that offer and then Chavez Jr. could say he gave him an offer to fight but he refused it. Other than Murray, there’s really not a lot of fighters that will give Chavez Jr. too many problems in the top 15 that the WBC has ranked right now. If you look at the names there’s only Matthew Macklin, Jermain Taylor and Darren Barker that can give him problems. Barker is ranked #12, Taylor #9 and Macklin #2. Barker and Taylor will likely have to wait at least two years before they move up high enough to get a shot against Chavez Jr. and Macklin will likely see his ranking slip after he loses to Sergio Martinez on March 17th. Chavez Jr. could in theory hold onto his WBC title for a number of years just because the best guys aren’t getting a shot against him.