(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) By Eric Thomas: Freddie Roach says that his fighter WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is well prepared for his fight tonight against Sergio Martinez despite it appearing that Chavez Jr. was slacking off with his training while video-taped on the Chavez Jr-Martinez 24/7 episodes.

Roach said to the LA Times “He [Chavez Jr] feels he’s going to be in this guy’s face and beat him up. I can tell you he’s hitting harder than ever.”

Chavez Jr’s pressure will be key in this fight. If he can put pressure on Martinez the way that he did against Andy Lee, Marco Antonio Rubio and Peter Manfredo Jr, then Chavez Jr. will have an excellent chance of winning tonight. He’s already got the size working for him, but unless he’s able to use that size by cutting off the ring then he’ll end up either losing by a decision or winning a controversial decision that makes a lot of fans angry.

There are already a lot of boxing fans suspicious about this fight feeling that Martinez won’t be given a decision against the more popular Chavez Jr. It would be bad for the sport if Chavez Jr. were to get dominated and then still end up winning somehow on the judges’ scorecards. This is why hopefully Chavez Jr., if he’s going to win, he does it in such a way that removes all doubt about his superiority by either knocking Martinez out or battering him to get a clear decision.

It’s going to be difficult for Chavez Jr. to do that because Martinez hasn’t been out-boxed by anyone ever. That’s never happened. Kermit Cintron got a draw against Martinez by boxing, but it just looked the referee completely blew it in that fight by failing to rule a knockdown from Martinez correctly. Instead of calling a knockdown – or in this case a knockout – the referee called it a headbutt. That fight was the closest that Martinez has gotten to being out-boxed. Cintron was a lot lighter on his feet than what we’ll likely see from Chavez Jr. tonight, so it’s going to be tough for Chavez Jr. to win a decision without controversy because he doesn’t match-up with Martinez in terms of boxing skills.

Chavez Jr. can follow Antonio Margarito’s blue print he created in stopping Martinez 12 years ago by pressuring him constantly but Martinez is so much different now than he was then. It might not work out as well for Chavez Jr. now if he tries to use the same strategy. He’s going to have to mix it up by boxing and slugging if he’s going to win this fight.