By Manuel Perez: Undefeated light middleweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (38-0, 29 KOs) will face unbeaten Argentinean Luciano Leonel Cuello (23-0, 10 KOs) on March 28th in Tijuana, Baja California, for the vacant WBO Latino light middleweight title. Chavez, 23, is making a slightly bigger step up from some of the softer opponents that he’s been facing thus far in his six year pro career. Without the luxury of any kind of amateur career to speak of, Chavez Jr. is taking the slow approach to his pro career building up slowly against better fighters in small increments rather than leaps and bounds.
The fact that Chavez Jr. was made to struggle in two consecutive fights against journeyman Matt Vanda in 2008, would seem to suggest that Chavez needs more time, perhaps another two or three more years, facing easier fighters before stepping up and taking on a legitimate contender in the light middleweight division.
The problem for him is that he’s steadily growing in size and it’s doubtful he’ll still be able to fight in the light middleweight division in a couple of years. In fact, he may eventually grown into a super middleweight or even a light heavyweight by the time he’s through.
He looks still like he’s far from finished growing and I can’t imagine that he’ll be able to stay at the light middleweight level for much longer without hurting himself by having to drain down to make the weight. At light middleweight, Chavez has a lot of power, but that may be hold true for middleweight. Hopefully, when he makes that step up, he’ll have increased power for the division.
Cuello, 24, has good ability but he’s faced limited opposition up to this point. His chin may be a question mark, because in his fight against the light-hitting Alejandro Gustavo Falliga in December 2007, Cuello was knocked down twice in the fight. He eventually won it by a 10-round majority decision but it was far from impressive.
Did Jennings Give 100% Against Cotto?
In watching the Michael Jennings vs. Miguel Cotto fight this past Saturday for the vacant WBO welterweight title, I couldn’t help thinking that Jennings didn’t put in a good effort for his cause. With the title on the line, he seemed to phone in his performance by skittering around on the outside and not mixing it up. I figured at some point he’d abandon this passive style of fighting and come at Cotto, especially because Miguel had been beaten in his last fight against Antonio Margarito by a 11th round TKO.
When you have a fighter that was knocked out as bad as Cotto, you got to take it to them and test their chin at some point. Sadly, I didn’t see that happening with Jennings. He looked like he wasn’t there mentally and didn’t seem to give it near 100%, just wasting his opportunity by running. I realize that he wasn’t on the level of Cotto, that was obvious from the very start, but you got to step up to the challenge when you’re in a title fight and give it your best shot.
The way that Jennings was fight, I wasn’t surprised that he was knocked out in the 5th. He was lucky to make it that far, because by not letting his hands go, he was like a paper target for Cotto’s big shots. I hope Jennings improves in the future and uses this fight as a lesson to him, although I doubt he’ll ever fight on the world class level again.
He can still look and learn from this in his fights in the UK against regional fighters that he matches up better against. My advice is to not beat around the bushes in the future. If he’s in with a fighter, then let your hands go and try to beat him with your fists rather than running around the ring and losing without putting in a good effort.
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