By Eric Thomas: According to the latest news, Saturday’s clash between unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) and John Duddy (29-1, 18 KO’s) will be a title eliminator for the World Boxing Council middleweight title now held by champion Sergio Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KO’s). The Duddy-Chavez fight, which will be a pay-per-view bout with the price of $39.95, will be taking place at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas. This will give the 24-year-old Chavez, who comes from nearby Mexico, a decided advantage over the Ireland born Duddy.

You can expect few fans of Duddy in the Arena on Saturday night. However, Mexican fans have a way of turning on their favorites if they’re not fighting as they would like them to. This was the case in Chavez’s 10 round decision victory over Matt Vanda in their first fight in July 2008 in Sonora, Mexico. Chavez Jr. won the fight by a 10 round split decision, but did little to show that he was the better fighter in the bout against Vanda, a B level fighter.

Many people in the Mexican crowd were unhappy with the decision, and showered the ring with water bottles moments after the decision was announced. Vanda, not a big puncher, used a lot of pressure in that fight to wear Chavez down in the later rounds. Duddy might want to take a page from Vanda’s book and try the same thing against Chavez. He won’t likely be able to beat Chavez by trying to box him.

Duddy seems to be a lot less effective now that he’s stopped slugging as much in recent fights and become more of a boxer. He’s still getting hit about as much as he was before when he was only a slugger, but now he’s not throwing as many punches and looking very vulnerable. Duddy was beaten by Billy Lyell last year by a 10 round split decision. He just didn’t throw enough punches and seemed to waste time trying to box Lyell instead of going right at him and slugging it out.

I think the old Duddy would have likely won that fight fairly easy, but not with his new style of fighting. In Duddy’s last fight against light middleweight contender Michael Medina on March 13th, Duddy had the same problem of trying to box too much and not throwing enough punches. This allowed Medina to use his quicker hands to land shots while Duddy was on the outside.

When Duddy came forward in the last two rounds and fought on the inside like he used to, he dominated Medina. This is how Duddy needs to fight against Chavez, because he won’t be able to tire him out by fighting in spurts and moving around a lot. That’s just not what brought Duddy to this point. He’s got to go with what has worked for him in the past, and that’s his ability to mix it up and grind out a decision.

It is curious that Duddy-Chavez is an eliminator bout for Martinez’s WBC middleweight crown, because few people would consider either of them to be anywhere close to the level of Martinez. The winner of this fight is likely going to be totally outclassed by Martinez, if they decide to fight him. Duddy would almost certainly go after Martinez next. However, it’s doubtful that Chavez’s promoter Bob Arum would put him in with a fighter like Martinez. Instead, Arum will probably put Chavez in with WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto next, which will probably be just as much of a slaughter as Chavez going up against Martinez. The difference here is that Cotto is more popular than Martinez in the United States, and he also fights for Arum, which makes a Chavez-Cotto fight more profitable than a Chavez-Martinez. Chavez has been ranked high in the junior middleweight division for ages, but Arum hasn’t put him in with any top tier fighters until the Duddy fight. And Duddy is more of a fringe contender rather than someone that is a real threat to beat Chavez and knock him around the ring for 12 rounds. Chavez has been matched very selectively through the seven years of his pro career, and that’s perhaps the biggest reason why he’s still undefeated at this point. He may not be after Saturday night if Duddy takes the fight to him. But never the less, Chavez will be in over his head when he faces Martinez or Cotto.