By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) had better enjoy his win over Andy Lee while he still can, because on September 15th, Chavez Jr. is going to be in with a much different fighter in Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) in this fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This will be the first fight in which Chavez Jr. isn’t the bigger puncher. This will also be the first fight where Chavez Jr. is facing a fighter with the ability to move around the ring. Martinez is a whole different type of fighter than the guys that Chavez Jr. has been fighting up to this point.

The way I see it, Chavez Jr. only has one way of fighting Martinez and that’s by boxing him like Darren Barker and Matthew Macklin did. They ended up both getting stopped when Martinez applied pressure late in the fight, but they were effective by mostly boxing instead of looking to slug. Chavez Jr. isn’t that type of fighter and if he tries to box Martinez, he’ll only finally quickly behind in the fight. He can’t beat Martinez with that kind of game because he’s too slow, his jab not good enough and his foot movement also too slow. Chavez Jr. needs to try and box, but I don’t they he can do it.

I doubt that Chavez Jr. will stick to boxing for long even if his trainer Freddie Roach trains him to do that. He’ll end up charging Martinez and get poleaxed from one of Martinez’s big left hands.

Martinez isn’t going to fight anything like Andy Lee. He never fights like that anyway, but after watching how poorly Lee did with that kind of fighting approach, you can expect Martinez to use constant in and out attacks, while circling the ring in between them.

He knows that the best way to beat a slow fighter like Chavez Jr. is by using movement. Martinez is a small middleweight who comes in just at 160 lbs for his fights. He’s not going to try and go-toe-toe with the 180 pound Chavez Jr., because he’ll be giving away too much size. Look for Martinez to circle the ring and spear Chavez Jr. with hard shots to pick up points with the judges. If Lee was able to have a lead against Chavez Jr. through six rounds, then Martinez is good enough to win an easy decision over Chavez Jr.