By Jim Dower: WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) came close to pulling out a last round knockout victory against Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s) after knocking Martinez down in the 12th on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, Martinez got back up and was able to survive the round and win the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 118-109, 118-109 and 117-110.
The other 11 rounds belonged to Martinez, as he was able use movement, fast combinations and stiff jabs to completely the slower, lethargic Chavez Jr. For some reason, Chavez Jr. really never got his punches until the 11th round when he was able to land some hard shots. However, Martinez was able to continue to pound Chavez Jr. at will and it looked like an easy win for Martinez going into the 12th. But in that round, Chavez Jr. badly hurt Martinez with some hard right hands and left hooks to put him down. Somehow Martinez able to get up and survive the remainder of the round.
There’s a lesson here for Martinez. When you’ve got a fight as easily won as he had with Chavez Jr going into the last round, you’ve got to take it easy and stay away from. Chavez Jr. was huge tonight in terms of size and looked like a cruiserweight going up against a small middleweight. That was reason enough for Martinez to play it safe in the 12th, but he didn’t he almost paid the price for his mistake.
With this victory Martinez now has Chavez Jr’s WBC middleweight title and he can now go hunt down some other fights against the likes Gennady Golovkin or Daniel Geale in unification bouts. Chavez Jr. probably will want a rematch, but if he’s smart he’ll go in a different direction because I don’t think he’ll get lucky the next time. He also might find it harder to make weight the second time around.
Comments are closed.