By Jason Kim: Unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) is being carefully guided to the top by matching him against fighters with a little bit of name recognition by boxing fans, but not against anyone that is truly dangerous and would have a chance to beat him. In his next fight on December 4th, Chavez Jr. will be facing Alfonso Gomez (22-4-2, 11 KO’s), a former contestant on NBC’s reality television program The Contender six long years ago. Gomez, unlike Chavez, is a welterweight and not a middleweight.

Although he fought on The Contender show years ago, it’s doubtful that too many boxing fans have much of a memory of him. He was beaten by Peter Manfredo Jr. in the series. Gomez is better known for his fights on television against Arturo Gatti, Miguel Cotto, Jesus Soto-Karass and Jose Luis Castillo. However, those fights all took place in the welterweight division, which is why it seems all the more strange that Chavez is being matched against a fighter two divisions smaller than him rather than against middleweight contender.

Chavez Jr. is currently ranked number #1 by the WBC in the middleweight division. Ideally, Chavez Jr. should be matched against a middleweight contender like Darren Barker, Mahir Oral, Matthew Macklin, Marco Antonio Rubio, David Lopez, Fernando Guerrero or Domenico Spada. Matching Chavez Jr. against a welterweight appears to be a cherry picking move to fight someone that Chavez Jr. would have a good chance of beating.

In an article at the LA Times, Chavez Jr. says “I don’t think I’m ever going to prove I’m better than my dad [Julio Cesar Chavez], but these [facing Gomez and fringe contender John Duddy] are the steps you have to take, beat the fighters that people recognize. If I beat more of these guys, I’ll get to the next level.” In other words, if Chavez Jr. keeps beating guys that have been shown on cable, but have been exposed already and beaten a number of times, Chavez Jr. will get known by boxing fans and will be in a better position when they finally do match up with a 1st tier fighter.

I think it may help Chavez to get a little more money at the bargaining table, but I don’t think it’s going to help him beat a 1st tier fighter like WBA junior middleweight Miguel Cotto or former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Chavez Jr. can beat a 100 Duddys and Gomez’s, and still get destroyed by Cotto and Pavlik. Chavez Jr. is missing something and doesn’t look like he’ll ever have that missing ingredient to beat the top middleweights in the division.

If they cherry pick contenders, Chavez Jr. may be able to beat a flawed contender, but not someone that’s actually good. I can’t see Chavez ever beating Paul Williams in this lifetime, Sergio Martinez, Felix Sturm, Dmitri Pirog, Gennady Golovkin or Sebastian Zbik. Chavez would likely get knocked out by all of them.