By Jason Kim: Unbeaten middleweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) will defend his WBC Silver middleweight title against welterweight Alfonso Gomez (22-4-2, 11 KO’s) in a fight at 157 pound catch weight on December 4th at the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California. If Chavez Jr. can win this fight and look good, his promoter Bob Arum will match Chavez Jr. up with WBC junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) in early 2011, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.

This is a fight that many people expect Chavez to get destroyed in, if he takes the fight. Chavez Jr. has been handled with the utmost care in being brought along in his seven year pro career. It’s still hard to believe that after seven years as a pro, the best fighter that Chavez Jr. has fought thus far is fringe middleweight contender John Duddy, who Chavez Jr. beat last June by a lopsided 12 round decision. However, even in winning the fight against the limited Duddy, Chavez Jr. was staggered in the fight at one point. Cotto doesn’t appear to be the same fighter he once was after taking a beating from Antonio Margarito in 2008, but he should have more than enough to take Chavez Jr. out.

I still have my doubts that Chavez Jr. will even take the Cotto fight, because he’ll very likely lose his unbeaten record and that may hurt Chavez Jr. in the future. It was thought by some that Chavez Jr. was going to take easy fights until he got a big money bout against Manny Pacquiao. But given how Chavez Jr. continues to grow and fill out, it would be hard for him to drop enough weight to meet Pacquiao at one of his catch weight limits.

Chavez Jr. faces welterweight Gomez on December 4th at 157 pounds. This is a fight that Chavez Jr. will have a good chance to win, mainly because his management has selected an opponent in Gomez that is two divisions below him in weight. That size advantage should be enough for Chavez Jr. to get the win. It is rather telling that he’s being matched against a welterweight rather than a full fledged middleweight like Fernando Guerrero. Chavez Jr. needs to be fighting guys from his own weight division, not fighters two divisions below him. The catch weight isn’t going to benefit Gomez much, because it’s still at nearly the full limit of the middleweight division. It’s sad that Chavez Jr. is being matched against a small welterweight, as if Chavez Jr. needs to be protected from fighters in his own weight class for fear he’ll get beaten before he takes on one of the big named opponents like Cotto.