Chavez Jr. could be facing Pavlik on December 4th – News

By Boxing News - 07/12/2010 - Comments

Image: Chavez Jr. could be facing Pavlik on December 4th - NewsBy Eric Thomas: According to Steve Kim from Max Boxing.com, unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) could be facing former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) on December 4th in either the Cowboy Stadium, in Arlington, Texas or in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kim says Bob Arum has told him that the rumored bout between Chavez Jr. and Ricardo Mayorga isn’t true, “But hopes to have Chavez Jr-Pavlik on Dec 4th.” This would be a sensational fight for boxing fans if true.

It’s difficult to imagine Arum taking a risky fight like that for Chavez Jr. at this point because he’s brought him along so slowly during Chavez’s seven-year pro career. Just recently, Chavez Jr. beat John Duddy in arguably the biggest fight of Chavez’s career on June 26th. If Arum has Chavez going from that fight into one against a hard puncher like Pavlik, you would have to think that Arum is looking to make a huge gamble with Chavez’s career.

Either that, or he’s cashing out on his investment. However, Arum promotes Pavlik as well, so this is a fight that is really good for Pavlik, because his career will get a huge boost from a win over Chavez and he’ll get a nice payday. It’s a very winnable fight for Pavlik, but he’ll have to work hard to chase Chavez down. Chavez’s trainer Freddie Roach will no doubt be studying Pavliks’ recent 12 round decision loss to Sergio Martinez last April, and will look to have Chavez mimic the movement and things that Martinez did in that fight. Pavlik looked totally lost against Martinez when he circled the ring, as was the case in Pavlik’s loss to Bernard Hopkins in 2008.

Chavez showed good movement at times in his win over Duddy, but you can expect that he would be even better in a fight against Pavlilk. However, it’s difficult to imagine that Chavez could survive against a big puncher like Pavlik even if Chavez runs the entire time. Pavlik will cut off the ring and catch up to him sooner or later and knock him out or at least give him a pretty bad beating.

The one question for the potential Chavez-Pavlik fight is what weight would the fight take place at? If Pavlik is having problems making the middleweight limit and having to drain down from 190 to make the weight, he could be sluggish and weak if he has to fight Chavez at middleweight. It’d doubtful that Chavez would agree to fight Pavlik at a catch weight or at 168, which is where Pavlik is now fighting at.



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