By Jason Kim: All for hyping a fighter when they’ve shown some legitimate talent and the ability to beat the current champions in whatever division they’re fighting. However, I’m less patient about hyping a fighter that beats another B level fighter and then starts crowing about how they’re going to be a champion. Last Saturday night, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) did a good job of grinding out a 12 round decision over John Duddy (29-2, 18 KO’s) at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas.

While I think it was a great victory for the 24-year-old Chavez, given that his opponents up that point at hand been B and C level fighters, I still didn’t see anything in that victory that would suggest that Chavez would do anything but lose and lose badly if were to take on ANY of the champions in either the light middleweight or middleweight divisions. I saw nothing that would make me think that Chavez could beat fighters like Miguel Cotto, Sergio Martinez, Felix Sturm, Cory Spinks, Alfredo Angulo, Sebastian Sylvester or Sergeii Dzinziruk.

That’s just the way I see it. Chavez doesn’t have something going for him and that’s his age. At 24, he could out-last most of these fighters, in theory, and go after them once they old and addled. At that point, maybe I think there’s a chance that Chavez Jr. can win a major title in either of those divisions, but I’m really not holding my breath on that happening. Chavez will get older too, and maybe not get better.

I suspect Chavez is about as good as he’ll get. 24 is young for some fighters and it’s the prime for others. My guess is 24 is the prime for Chavez. I see him as having his foot all the way to the floor on his gas pedal, as good as he’ll ever get. Chavez’s promoter Bob Arum sees him as a new star in boxing. God, I don’t know about that. I didn’t see anything in that performance against Duddy that would suggest to me that Chavez is a star.

I did see Chavez staggered in the 6th round by the light hitting Duddy, and I also saw him struggle through most of the first half of the bout and end up with two bruised eyes. My question is: if Chavez is a star, then why is he struggling with a fringe contender like Duddy? Shouldn’t Chavez, being a star, breeze through a guy like Duddy? Why in the heck is he struggling with him then?

I’m not feeling good about Chavez’s future right now. And I don’t like his chances at all if he fights Cotto or Sergio Martinez anytime in the next five years. Chavez is not ready now to fight either Cotto or Martinez, that’s for sure. And I don’t see him being ready until both Cotto and Martinez are totally shot to pieces. They’re too good and what I saw of Chavez last Saturday night was a flawed fighter with some ability, but not enough to make up for all his flaws.