By Dan Ambrose: Former Sergio Martinez conqueror Antonio Margarito thinks WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. can pull out a victory over 37-year-old former WBC 160 pound champion Sergio Martinez in their fight on HBO on September 15th at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Margarito told estadiodeportes.com.mx “Julio is very intelligent, has been growing as a fighter, has demonstrated quality against his rivals. The advice I would give to confront Martinez would press it all the time, throwing many punches from all angles, clog outlets and use its youth to be behind him. The Argentinian will want to box, and Julio should be accustomed to this, and move forward with pressure. I’m sure the knockout and will in Chavez Jr’s favor because it has the conditions and the hunger to say, ‘here I am ‘for any rival. ”

So it looks like Margarito sees Chavez Jr. slowly breaking Martinez down with pressure much in the same way that Margarito himself broke Martinez with constant pressure in their fight 12 years ago when he stopped a young Martinez in the 7th round in February 2000. A lot has changed in Martinez’s game since then, however. Back then, Martinez foolishly tried to stand and fight Margarito and eventually was worn down by the high pace of the fight. Martinez completely revamped his game over the years, and is now a fighter that boxes more.

Martinez moves constantly and uses his speed to create opportunities. Margarito seems to be going by his knowledge of the old Martinez from many years ago, and not the Martinez that exists today. Chavez Jr. can try and clog the outlets, but that would mean that Martinez would be standing there in front of him to allow the 180 pound Chavez Jr. to do that. That’s not going to happen.

Martinez realizes by now that he’s likely going to be giving away 15 pounds or more against the cruiserweight-sized Chavez Jr on September 15th, and since the World Boxing Council doesn’t have rehydration limits like the WBO, Chavez Jr. will be able to rehydrate from 160 all the way up to 180+ in this fight. But it won’t help him in this case because he’s not fighting guys with no mobility like Marco Antonio Rubio, Peter Manfredo Jr, Sebastian Zbik, John Duddy or Andy Lee, he’s facing Sergio Martinez and he’s going to make Chavez Jr. use his legs to move around the ring for 12 rounds.

When you’ve got a fighter that is taking off and putting on 20 pounds of water weight in a short period of time like Chavez Jr, the way to wear him down is to move around the ring and tire him out. This is what Martinez is going to do in this fight. He’ll do what the previous hand-picked opposition couldn’t do against Chavez Jr. He’ll use his legs and take Chavez Jr. into the deep rounds and then drown him.