By Dan Ambrose: New WBC Silver middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) seems to be getting a little ahead of himself after beating fringe middleweight contender John Duddy (29-2, 18 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas. Chavez Jr. hurt the 31-year-old Duddy a number of times in their fight, causing him to wobble in the 8th, 9th and 11th round from big right hands and left hooks. Chavez Jr. showed good power, but didn’t look all that fast, didn’t move very well and showed really poor defense.

Both of Chavez’s eyes were bruised at the end of the fight and you could tell that it was a tough fight for him. After the bout, Chavez Jr. said “I hope everyone finally believes in me. I am going to be a world champion. I proved that to everyone tonight.” I don’t know about that. I think Chavez Jr. isn’t seeing the situation too clearly. This was Duddy he was facing tonight, a fighter that has been shrewdly matched during his career and was beaten last year by Billy Lyell, who isn’t exactly the most dangerous fighter in the middleweight division.

It’s good that Chavez was able to beat a fighter like Duddy. But you have to see things for what they are. Duddy is a Top Rank fighter and not a top five contender nor is he a champion. Duddy is ranked #7 in the WBC. In the larger scheme of things, Duddy would probably have his backside handed to him many times over if he fought middleweights like Kelly Pavlik, Sergio Martinez, Felix Sturm, Sebastian Sylvester, Sebastian Zbik, Gennady Golovkin, Paul Williams, Daniel Jacobs, Dmitry Pirog, Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam, Anthony Mundine, Winky Wright, Roman Karmazin, Giovanni Lorenzo, Daniel Geale, Dominco Spada, Enrique Ornelas, Gennady Martirosyan, Matthew Macklin, Koren Gevor, Mahir Oral. Randy Griffin, Andy Lee, and Lajuan Simon.

These are just some of the middleweights that I think would have beaten Duddy on Saturday night. So, what Chavez Jr. did really wasn’t a big deal. Duddy had already been beaten, and has looked very average against the fighters that have been put in with him. He Duddy hasn’t been matched tough during his career. In the times that he has taken on top tier fighters, it’s usually been older guys like Howard Eastman and Yory Boy campos. At any rate, Chavez needs to step back and put his win in perspective.

Yes, it’s great that Chavez Jr. was able to beat Duddy, but it still doesn’t mean that he’s necessarily good enough to beat the top contenders in the middleweight division or the champions. There’s a big step up from the likes of Duddy to the top contenders that I previously mentioned. And judging by how bruised Chavez’s face was by Duddy on Saturday night, I think Chavez would have struggled against the top contenders in the division.

Normally, promoters like to slowly move their fighters up the later in small increments before they put them in with a champion. They do this to prevent the fighter from being shocked at how much better the champion is compared to the opposition they’ve been facing. But it doesn’t look like Chavez is going to have that benefit because his promoter Bob Arum is already talking about matching Chavez Jr. up with WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto next rather than easing him into a title shot slowly by having him beat some better contenders.

I think Chavez is going to be out of his class when he’s put in with Cotto, and I don’t think he’s going to be nearly ready for him when the time comes. Arum either seems obvious to this or maybe just doesn’t care. It seems more like he just doesn’t understand how big of a jump it is from a fighter like Duddy to a guy like Cotto.

Arum had this to say after the fight, “The old Cesar Chavez wouldn’t have been dismantled; he would have run out of gas.” I bet. I saw the fight and Chavez Jr. didn’t show me anything in the bout that would suggest that he could beat his father if they fought. I think Chavez Jr. would have been in serious trouble had he been with a young or even an old Julio Cesar Chavez.