By Chris Williams: With trainer Freddie Roach’s fighters getting beaten left and right he’s now in the position where he could take a further big hit if his fighter WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) gets knocked out by 37-year-old Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) next month on September 15th in their huge HBO pay per view clash in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Roach has seen his fighters drop one after another with Amir Khan, Manny Pacquiao and Jorge Linares all losing important fights recently. Roach trains a lot of other fighters, but his two biggest stars have taken losses recently, and there are more than a few boxing fans who feel that Roach’s training techniques aren’t as good as many people previously thought they were.

A loss for Chavez Jr. would be a huge blow for Roach, because it would wipe out his last remaining big star. It’s not the end of the world, of course, but it would definitely hurt Roach because he’s the captain of the ship in terms of being the one responsible for getting these guys ready for the fights.

When Pacquiao, Khan and Chavez Jr. all lose, it’s natural for boxing fans to look at the trainer and start pointing fingers for things that went wrong. That’s how it is and how it’s always been. We could see fighters fleeing from Roach if Chavez Jr. loses this fight and it might be bad. The worse thing that could happen is if Chavez Jr. comes into the fight looking too heavy and then struggling before getting knocked out. Chavez Jr’s weight would be something that his trainer should have taken care of, and a lot of the responsibility would fall on Roach’s head for allowing Chavez Jr to come into the Martinez fight overweight. But in terms of popularity as a trainer, I think Roach could be hurt badly if Chavez Jr. winds up getting massacred by Martinez on September 15th, and I think that’s going to happen.

The big, slow and flat-footed Chavez Jr will be like a Mexican version of Kelly Pavlik, who came into his fight with Martinez really heavy after rehydrating up from 160 in their fight in 2010. Pavlik fought alright in the first six rounds due to his big weight advantage, but in the last half of the fight Martinez gave the tiring Pavlik a terrible beating in winning a 12 round decision. Pavlik’s face was a bloody mess by the time the fight was over, and it’s surprising that he wasn’t knocked out.