By Jason Kim: In the final press conference, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who promotes both John Duddy (29-1, 18 KO’s) and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s), indicated that the 24-year-old Chavez Jr. could be facing World Boxing Association (WBA) light middleweight champion Miguel Cotto next if Chavez can beat Duddy on Saturday night at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas.

Arum, however, didn’t say the same thing about Duddy. If he wins, he’ll have to likely settle for possibly getting a title shot at some point in the future against WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. When that would happen is unknown, but it likely won’t be in anywhere near the money that a fight against Cotto would bring. But that looks like only Chavez has the chance of getting a big money fight against Cotto.

Arum said “This fight [Duddy-Chavez], and I know some belittle it, but they are fighting for the WBC Silver belt. That means the winner of this fight is assured a championship match in the foreseeable future. If Chavez wins, and according to Freddie [Roach] he is capable of making 154, he could fight Miguel Cotto as a possibility.”

The only reasons that boxing fans “belittle’ the Chavez vs. Duddy fight is because many of the fans don’t see either of them as legitimate contenders and many of them don’t feel that the winner of the fight should be fighting for a title based on this fight.

Instead of this fight being a catapult for a world title, it would seem like a better option for Chavez and Duddy, both of whom are seen as badly flawed fighters by fans, to fight top contenders in the middleweight or junior middleweight divisions instead of each other. For example, no would likely argue that Chavez and Duddy would be deserving of a title shot if they were to beat middleweights like Daniel Jacobs, Kelly Pavlik or Gennady Golovkin.

And they wouldn’t have any problems if Chavez was to beat a top junior middleweight like Alfredo Angulo or Antonio Margarito before getting a shot against Cotto. However, for Chavez to go from Duddy to Cotto seems to be skipping a lot of arguably higher quality fighters ranked above Duddy. It goes the same way for Duddy.

By taking on Chavez Jr., who isn’t even ranked in the middleweight division, and then being able to fight for a middleweight title, seems a little bizarre to say the least. Even if Duddy and Chavez Jr. are fighting for the WBC Silver middleweight crown on Saturday, they should at least have to fight a top five contender like Pavlik, Paul Williams or Golovkin before they get a title shot.

Duddy may not get a title not get a title shot for some time even if he beats Chavez, but Chavez will likely find himself fighting Cotto next unless Cotto gets selected by Arum to replace Floyd Mayweather Jr. for a fight against Manny Pacquiao in November.