By Jim Dower: Unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) will be making his first appearance with new trainer Freddie Roach this Saturday night against middleweight fringe contender John Duddy (29-1, 18 KO’s) at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas. Chavez and Duddy will be fighting for the vacant WBC Silver belt, one of the newer titles that have been put together not too long again.

Chavez, 24, has some big money fights ahead of him if he can beat Duddy on Saturday, as Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has talked about possibly matching Chavez Jr. up against WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto in a big money fight. According to writer Doug Fischer from Ringtv.com, Chavez Jr. looked so-so in a recent sparring session that he watched of him this past week. It was only sparring, of course, but Chavez Jr. had some problems against Michael Medina and Rashad Holloway, and failed to dominate to dominate either of them during the sparring sessions.

It probably doesn’t matter, though, because Duddy, a decent fighter, likely would have problems against those guys too. This is the beauty of matching Chavez Jr. against Duddy rather than say an arguably more dangerous middleweight contender like Gennady Golovkin, Paul Williams, Matthew Macklin or Daniel Jacobs. Chavez Jr. at least has a chance to beat Duddy, because we’ve already seen Duddy beaten last year by another fringe contender Billy Lyell.

If Chavez Jr. has any ability, he should be able to beat Duddy. However, Chavez Jr. apparently is having problems applying the things that Roach is trying to teach him, specifically in using his jab more. Fisher says that Chavez Jr. opted to fight on the inside in his sparring sessions rather than stay on the outside and utilize his reach to control the action. One of the problems with Chavez is that despite his long 6’0” frame, he has a tendency to try and fight on the inside much of the time like his famous 5’7” father Julio Cesar Chavez.

The problem with Chavez Jr. is that he doesn’t have the same kind of heavy hands and power that his father once had in his prime. This results in Chavez Jr. taking a lot of punishment in his fights because he can’t just get his opponents out of there or punish them in the same way that his father Chavez Sr. was able to do in his career. It’s pretty telling that Chavez Jr. has been struggling to beat B level fighters in the past two years.

This says that Chavez Jr. isn’t doing something right or he doesn’t have the physical skills and expertise to compete at the upper level of the light middleweight and middleweight divisions. Surprisingly, the fight against Duddy will mark the first time in Chavez’s seven year pro career that he’ll have faced an A level fighter, if you want to call Duddy that. Chavez Jr. is ranked number #1 by the WBC, yet he hasn’t fought one top tier opponent up until now. That makes you wonder a little about the rankings.

Ideally, a number #1 ranked fighter should at least have fought and beaten a top tier opponent for them to receive that kind of ranking. In Chavez’s case, he’s fought strictly B level fighters and there are a couple of fights – against Matt Vanda and Carlos Molina – where Chavez Jr. appeared to lose but was given a draw and a split decision.

Never the less, Chavez Jr. will likely get a big money fight against Cotto next if he can get by Duddy this Saturday night. I can see this fight as being controversial, with a lot of close rounds going to Chavez instead of Duddy.