By Jim Dower: Undefeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) will be flying to Los Angeles on Tuesday to begin training with Freddie Roach at his Wild Card Gym for preparation for the 24-year-old Chavez’s June 26th fight against middleweight contender John Duddy (29-1, 18 KO’s) at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas. According to the Record, Chavez’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank convinced Chavez Jr., the son of famous boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez, to start training with Roach in the United States.

Chavez Jr. has fought pretty much entirely B and C level fighters during his career and sports a record that looks good at first glance but has few if any meaningful wins. Lately, Chavez has looked far from impressive in beating 2nd tier fighters Troy Rowland, Luciano Leonel Cuello and Matt Vanda. Chavez is missing hand speed, defense and is badly lacking in work rate.

Another problem that the young Chavez has is that he often fights in close like his father used to do, but he doesn’t have the huge punching power or the ferociousness that his father had. Chavez Jr. is still young, so perhaps Roach can make some progress with him, but it’s going to take a tremendous amount of work because Chavez Jr. doesn’t look like anything like a future champion right now. Roach may be able to train him well enough to beat Duddy, which really isn’t saying much because Duddy was recently beaten by Billy Lyell last year in April 2009.

Duddy hasn’t looked all that good either, as he’s been matched against B level opponents as well. Duddy also appears to be missing certain qualities in a number of areas starting with his poor defense. Duddy’s hand speed is lacking, his power is average, and he moves slowly on his feet. However, as bad as Duddy is, he’s probably good enough to beat the young Chavez. Duddy does well against crude sluggers like Chavez and will probably be able to beat him at his own game.