(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (48-2-1, 32 KOs) is trying to get back to the level he was at before he was beaten by Sergio Martinez in 2012. This Saturday night, Chavez Jr. will be facing middleweight Marcos Reyes (33-2, 24 KOs) on Premier Boxing Champions on Showtime from the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas.

It’s supposed to be a mismatch, but I don’t think there’s such a thing as a mismatch for Chavez Jr. nowadays. Every live body they throw in the ring with him has a chance of beating him.

Chavez Jr., 29, has lost his way in the last three years largely the result of him missing nine months of action from a suspension following the Martinez fight. Chavez Jr. hasn’t been helped by the fact that he’s no longer fighting in the 160lb division where he had a huge advantage in weight over his lighter opponents.

Now fighting at super middleweight, Chavez Jr. is going to have to make some adjustments to how he fights by becoming more technical if he wants to be able to succeed in this weight class. Chavez Jr. still hasn’t fought a super middleweight, and it’s unclear when he’ll eventually do that.

“I am trying to get back to the level I once was at. I spent a lot of time out of the ring with non-boxing issues, but now I feel fully focused in the ring,” Chavez Jr. said. “I feel more comfortable in the ring and I feel like I have the right tools to win this fight on Saturday.”

It would be a more interesting fight if Chavez Jr. was cutting his teeth on his first actual super middleweight. Chavez Jr. moved up to the 168lb division in 2013, and he’s yet to face a super middleweight. Since moving up to the division, Chavez Jr. has twice fought middleweight journeyman Brian Vera, once fought at light heavyweight against Andrzej Fonfara and is now fighting at super middleweight against another middleweight in Marcos Reyes.

It doesn’t make much sense for Chavez Jr. to be fighting middleweights still. Reyes isn’t a big middleweight, and he’s not going to be able to get Chavez Jr. ready for guys like Badou Jack, Gilberto Ramirez, George Groves, Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, Anthony Dirrell or Arthur Abraham.
“I think 168 is a good weight class for me,” Chavez Jr. said.

Based on how Chavez Jr. looked in his two fights against Vera and his one fight against Fonfara, I think the super middleweight division is going to be a really bad division for Chavez Jr. Hopefully he’s thinking about a plan to try and get back down to 160 if it doesn’t pan out for him at 168, because I have a feeling he’s going to struggle in this weight class as bad as he did in his recent catch-weight fight against Fonfara. Chavez Jr. had excuses about Fonfara being too big and too strong for him, but I think Chavez Jr. is going to have the same complaints when he faces the actual super middleweights. The guys at middleweight are more up Chavez Jr’s alley than him fighting super middleweights who are as big as him.