By Eric Thomas: According to the latest boxing news, unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) is likely to be facing the 29-year-old welterweight Alfonso Gomez (22-4-2, 11 KO’s) on December 4th rather than the tough junior middleweight Pawel Wolak. In facing the smaller Gomez, Chavez will have an advantage in size and power that will help him. Chavez wouldn’t have nearly as much of an advantage against Wolak.

However, Gomez can fight a little and if he’s able to push the fight and force Chavez Jr. to fight harder than he wants to, Gomez could end up wearing him down and earning a decision. It won’t be easy getting a decision over Chavez, though. It might take a knockout for Gomez to beat the young and popular Chavez.

Originally, Chavez Jr. was being mentioned for a fight with Kelly Pavlik. However, just when boxing fans were starting to get excited about the fight, Chavez’s people declined to put him in with Pavlik. Next, WBA junior middleweight Miguel Cotto was supposed to have been Chavez’s opponent for December 4th. Cotto, however, wants to take the rest of the year off and rest his recently surgically repaired shoulder.

This leaves Chavez Jr. in need of an opponent. The choices to pick from are Gomez and Wolak. Since Chavez Jr. has faced mostly B level fighters his entire career with the exception of his fight with bottom 15 ranked John Duddy, it isn’t likely that Chavez’s handlers would want to break from that pattern and put him in with a good junior middleweight like Wolak.

Gomez apparently is the one that they want Chavez Jr. to face instead. You can only guess what they see in Gomez. I would say that his smaller size makes him the ideal opponent for Chavez, but his lower work rate compared to Wolak is probably the clincher. Wolak is even smaller than Gomez at only 5’8”, but he’s virtual punching machine.

If Chavez were to get in a war with him, there’s no telling who would come out on top. You couldn’t guarantee that it wouldn’t be Wolak. This is perhaps why Gomez is probably going to be picked. He doesn’t throw as many punches and is much smaller than Chavez by three inches in height and has a four inch reach disadvantage.