Chavez Jr. vs. LeHoullier this Saturday

By Boxing News - 09/09/2009 - Comments

By Dave Lahr: Light middleweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (39-0-1, 29 KO’s) will continue his conquest of the B level fighters by fighting yet another one this Saturday night, taking on little known Jason LeHoullier (21-1-1, 8 KO’s) at the El Palenque de la Feriam Tepic, in Nayarit, Mexico. The bout is scheduled for 10 rounds, which for Chavez Jr. is a good thing, because his questionable stamina likely won’t come into play.

Chavez J., 23, has a number of advantages over LeHoullier, starting with being the much younger compared to the 31-year-old LeHoullier. To add to that, Chavez Jr. is taller at 6’0” compared to the 5’9’ measurements of LeHoullier and is stronger and also faster.

As things stand, Chavez Jr. looks to be in a good position to rake up his 40th win without a loss on Saturday. It’s incredible that Chavez Jr. has that many wins without facing one top tier fighter. At this rate, Chavez may end up accumulating a record like his famous father and end up with 100 wins. What it all means is open to interpretation if the wins come mostly against 2nd tier opponents.

All I can say is that I hope Chavez Jr. looks really good against LeHoullier on Saturday, because if Chavez has to battle hard and struggle, like he has with his last two opponents Matt Vanda and Luciano Leonel Cuello, then it will probably mean that Chavez Jr. will continue to fight B level fighters for some time to come. Chavez is ranked high, number #3 in the WBC and WBO light middleweight division.

The rankings mean nothing, because I doubt that Chavez’s promoter will put him in with champions Sergio Martinez or Sergeii Dzinziruk, knowing that Chavez Jr. would be facing an almost certain loss against either of them. If that’s not enough reason, then they also won’t put Chavez in with them because neither of those fights would mean a huge payday for Chavez and his team.

For Chavez to get a big payday, he would have to coax one of the popular fighters like Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Miguel Cotto into fighting him. That probably won’t happen anytime soon because of their fight commitments. But in the meantime, you can expect Chavez Jr. to continue to pile up wins one after another as he pads his record by beating lower level fighters.

That’s not to say that Chavez doesn’t have some skills. He has excellent power in either hand and is quite good when punching to the body. He’s dangerous against a fighter that stands directly in front of him, not throwing a lot of punches at him. However, Chavez’s work rate is low and if he faces a fighter that can stand up to his shots and keep firing away, then Chavez is in great danger of losing the fight.

I’ve see LeHoullier on a couple of occasions and noticed that his work rate isn’t all that high. He tends to peck away at his opponents, and for some reason, he loads up with his shots even though he has no real power. If he fights like that against Chavez, this will be an easy fight for Chavez Jr. to win. He hits much harder than LeHoullier and will probably take him out if Lehoullier stands directly in front of him for 10 rounds.



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