By Manuel Perez: Undefeated light middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (38-0-1, 29 KOs) will put his unbeaten record on the line this Saturday night against undefeated Argentinean Luciano Leonel Cuello (23-0, 10 KOs) in a 12-round bout for the vacant WBO Latino light middleweight title at the Plaza de Toros, in Tijuana, Mexico.
The fight card, called “Latin Fury 8: Tijuana Thunder” has the untested Chavez Jr. and Cuello fighting in the main event, Humberto Soto vs. Antonio Davis for the WBC super featherweight title, and Fernando Montiel vs. Diego Oscar Silva for the WBO interim bantamweight title.
The Chavez Jr-Cuello fight is interesting, if only because it matches two fighters with unbeaten records who have fought pretty much soft competition during their entire careers. However, in fairness to each of them, they’re still just starting out and in theory they may eventually improve enough to be legitimate top 10 fighters.
I’m not talking about being a champion, because I can’t see either of these guys ever winning a major title unless they were involved with an opponent that suffered a sudden injury, giving them the title.
But on talent alone, neither of these guys are championship quality as of now. Chavez Jr., though, is ranked number#3 in the WBC and #7 in the WBO, getting that ranking, presumably, because of his wins over journeyman Matt Vanda, as well as victories over B-level fighters Jose Celaya and Ray Sanchez.
However, if Chavez Jr. were to face a real top 10 fighter, I’d give him zero chance of winning, yet if he keeps picking up wins over marginal competition he’ll find himself in a title match within a year against the likes of Sergio Martinez or Vernon Forrest. I shudder at the thought of Chavez Jr. fighting either of them, because he’s not nearly in the class of either and would be in way over his head if he were to be thrown to those wolves.
With Chavez Jr’s name due to his famous father, Julio Cesar Chavez, who was one of the best boxers in the late 80s to early 90s, Chavez Jr. finds himself being able to fight in PPV bouts, even though he’s not all that good and holds no major belts.
It’s good work if you can get it. In his last two fights, Chavez Jr. has faced a certain amount of booing from fans at ring side, mostly in Mexico, who weren’t entirely pleased with his poor effort against Matt Vanda in their first fight on July 12th, 2008.
Chavez Jr. won the fight by a 10-round split decision but he looked poor in doing so. Chavez Jr. would later blame the poor outing due to the flu that he was suffering from on that night. However, in the rematch between the two fighters fought four months later in November 2008, Chavez Jr. only looked a shade better than the first time out.
The main difference in the rematch is that Vanda wasn’t throwing punches like he did the first time out and ended up losing because of his poor work rate rather than being beaten.
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