By Chris Williams: I’ve been curious about the career of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s), and have been wondering when his promoter Bob Arum would finally put him in with a good opponent after seven years of facing exclusively B level fighters. I figured that Arum would at least put Chavez Jr. in with a decent top tier fighter before throwing him to the dogs to be ripped apart. But instead, Arum is going to not take any risks and just throw Chavez Jr. in with WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) on December 4th, despite Chavez Jr. having faced no one worth mentioning other than B level fighter John Duddy.

That just makes me think that Arum has no faith in Chavez and doesn’t want to take a risk by putting him in with a good top tier fighter fighter like Alfredo Angulo, Kelly Pavlik, Roman Karmazin, Pawel Wolak, Kermit Cintron, Daniel Jacobs, or Gennady Golovkin. At least if Chavez had fought one of those guys, we’d know what he’s made of and would have a pretty good idea how he’d do against Cotto. Based on only the win over fringe contender Duddy, I think Chavez is going to get royally beaten to a pulp, and I can only imagine how much this fight will go for on pay per view.

Since it’s no doubt going to be a PPV bout, I would prefer that both fighters have cut their teeth on top level opposition during their career instead of just one of them (Cotto). Since Chavez Jr. is going from B level cuisine to top of grade, I don’t see how this fight can be a PPV bout. If it’s going to be a likely slaughter, I would prefer the fight be for free on regular HBO, if they’re interesting in show the fight. I guess HBO will want to show the fight so that they can take advantage of Cotto’s large fan base and the many fans of former boxing legend Julio Cesar Chavez, who just happens to be the father of Chavez Jr.

Chavez Jr. didn’t show me anything in his win over Duddy that would make me think he can somehow beat Cotto or even be competitive with him. What I saw of Chavez Jr. in the Duddy fight was a plodder, with decent power, average hand speed, a fragile chin and horrible defensive skills. If Cotto opens up with anything hard in the early going, I see him blasting Chavez apart in no time flat. I know Freddie Roach is going to have Chavez running, but I don’t think he’s going to be able to run fast enough or long enough to keep Cotto from catching up to him and beating him up and sending him home to Mexico.