By Jim Dower: Having been spoon fed mostly soft opposition for the past seven years as a pro, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) is finally being put in with someone that can fight a little in the form of middleweight contender John Duddy (29-1, 18 KO’s). The two will be fighting on June 26th, at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas. Chavez, 24, has been put in with guys that he can handle and they’ve a remarkable job of building up his record with good match-making.
The theory is that Chavez Jr. didn’t have an amateur career like other boxers, and because of this he was to be brought up extra slowly. Well, he’s been brought up incredibly slowly and has an impressive record and the number #1 ranking by the WBC junior middleweight organization. But the question is whether it’s been worth it. At this point Chavez has got to start showing that he has the ability to be more than a fighter that struggles with B level opposition.
He’s got to start producing against the ‘A’ quality fighters. Unfortunately, Duddy isn’t an ‘A’ level fighter, but he is a good ‘B’ class fighter and he should be good enough to show whether Chavez can make it at this level or not. Something tells me that Chavez’s promoter and trainer have a pretty good idea that he can beat Duddy. Otherwise they would have taken this risk. Chavez is easy money and he can draw fans in Mexico even when put in with only B level opposition.
This is the thing, though. If Chavez can beat Duddy, who is far from the talent of the champion caliber fighters in the junior middleweight division like Sergio Martinez, Miguel Cotto and Alfredo Angulo, then Chavez will almost surely land a fight against Cotto. It doesn’t matter that Chavez wouldn’t have fought some of the dangerous light middleweights like Joel Julio and Vanes Martirosyan. He would still get that big money fight because he was able to beat Duddy, who many people see as a B class fighter.
There’s little chance that Chavez will be competitive with a fighter like Cotto, of course. But that doesn’t matter. It’s about filling a stadium, bringing in a lot of fans and getting a lot of fans interested in the fight, even it’s the one big fight of Chavez’s career. I would like to think that Chavez will continue to fight high quality fighters if he gets beaten by either Cotto or Duddy. However, I think he’ll go right back to what he’s been doing for the last seven years by fighting 2nd tier opposition.
Matched against those fighters, Chavez could quickly reel off five or six easy wins and find himself being matched against another Cotto-like champion. And then it all starts again with Chavez likely getting blown out of the water again, and then retooling on more B fighters. It’s sad if that’s how it goes, but it might not be a bad thing for Chavez. He’ll make a lot of money in his occasional title fights and continue to have an impressive looking record.
I think things would far different if Chavez was matched against quality top tier fighters. In that case, I think Chavez would probably lose every time out and would have an extraordinarily bad record in his next five or six fights, probably losing them all. But that’s probably not going to happen. He’s going to be selectively matched and will probably do well against the fighters that are picked for him.
As bad as Duddy has been looking in the past five years, I think he’s got more than enough to beat Chavez unless he comes unglued and starts throwing bombs without thinking defense.
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