By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) says he’s more interested in facing the unbeaten WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (26-0, 23 KO’s) or WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) in September rather than facing Sergio Martinez again.
It’s unknown if Chavez Jr. is serious about that or if this is a bargaining tool to get Sergio to drop his demands for random blood testing for performance enhancing drugs.
Chavez Jr. told ESPN “Personally I think it would attract more people to fight against Gennady Golovkin or Andre Ward. The rematch against ‘Maravilla’ I do not care about for now.”
I don’t know if fights against Golovkin and/or Ward would attract more interest from U.S boxing fans than a second fight against Sergio Martinez, but it would be something different for Chavez Jr. I think both of those fights would be extremely hard for Chavez Jr. for different reasons.
It would be very surprising if Chavez Jr. agreed to fight Ward because Chavez Jr’s customary size advantage would be pretty much nonexistent for that fight. He would have a size advantage of around 10 pounds rather than 20 pound advantage, but 10 pounds is nothing when you’re facing a talented fighter like Ward. He would make Chavez Jr. look really bad if that fight were to be made.
Golovkin is a better fight for Chavez Jr. than a second fight with Sergio Martinez or a fight with Ward because Golovkin would be there to be hit because he likes to mix it up with his opponents. That’s not to say that Chavez Jr. would win the fight but he’d at least have a better chance to land his big shots due to Golovkin’s habit of mixing it up with his opponents.
Chavez Jr. plans on getting back in the ring on June 22nd and will be facing either Darren Barker or Brian Vera in a fight that will be staged in Mexico City, Mexico. Barker, 30, is the leading candidate to get that fight.
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