By Jim Dower: As I was looking over the rankings, I noticed that light middleweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) is ranked at number #1 by the WBC for the light middleweight division. I know that having an unbeaten record helps in ranking, but I don’t quite understand how the 24-year-old Chavez Jr. could be ranked above more established fighters in the division like Antonio Margarito and Kermit Cintron.

That seems kind of crazy if you ask me. Chavez, the son of former boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez, hasn’t fought anyone in the top tier as of yet during his seven year pro career and has had some really close calls in recent years against some of the B level opponents that have been put in with him. Chavez went life and death with Matt Vanda in their first fight in July 2008, and struggled badly to beat Luciano Leonel Cuello last year by a narrow 10 round decision.

A lot of people thought that Chavez Jr. should have lost his two fights with Carlos Molina. I saw both fights and had Molina winning both fights. Whatever the case, ignoring his close fights against B level opposition, I don’t know how Chavez can be ranked at number #1 without having beaten one top tier fighter during his career. That doesn’t make any sense at all to me. He should have at least beaten someone to get to that point, shouldn’t he? I think it’s very peculiar that a fight without any top level experience should be ranked ahead of top fighters like Cintron and Margarito.

Even though Margarito has been out of action for awhile, wouldn’t you think that Chavez should be ranked below him given Chavez’s lack of experience? I see a number of other fighters that I think should be ranked above Chavez by the WBC. A lot of them are badly flawed but I still them as having showed more in their fights than what I’ve seen from Chavez. Erislandy Lara, Joe Greene, Luis Collazo and Vanes Martirosyan are all ranked blow Chavez. I think all of them would beat him if given a chance to fight him.

Next month, Chavez Jr. will take on his first top tier opponent of his career in middleweight John Duddy on June 26th at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas. This could be the end of Chavez’s ‘0’ when he meets up with Duddy. The two fighters will be competing for the WBC Silver middleweight title. I’ve never heard of that belt, but it somehow sounds fitting for this fight.