By Chris Williams: If unbeaten middleweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) is supposed to be a future champion, according to his trainer Freddie Roach, he hardly showed that he had much ability in beating 2nd tier journeyman Billy Lyell (22-9, 4 KO’s) last night, winning by an unimpressive 10 round unanimous decision at the Estadio Banorte, in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. There’s no doubt that the 24-year-old Chavez Jr. won the fight, because he threw far more punches, landed more and was the much bigger guy compared to Lyell. Chavez Jr. looked positively huge compared to the 5’9″ Lyell, who was brought in from the junior middleweight ranks to take the fight.

Chavez Jr. looked fat compared to the form he was in when he defeated John Duddy a year ago in June. It would be interesting to know how heavy Chavez Jr. was last night, because he looked, as some people already said, like a 175 pounder, facing a small 154 pound junior middleweight. Chavez’s speed was very slow, his power was on the level of a welterweight and his foot movement reminded me a lot of a plodding heavyweight. I think Roach needs to cut his losses and move on, because I don’t see much in Chavez Jr. that suggests that he’ll ever be a good middleweight. He might pick up a paper title against WBC middleweight Sebastian Zbik, who was given the WBC title without having to fight for it when the WBC handed it to Zbik last week. But Zbik isn’t very good, so even if Chavez beats this guy, it doesn’t say much for Chavez.

The only good thing I could see of Chavez last Saturday night was that he was able to throw a lot of punches against the little Lyell. Chavez was very busy, but, god, the lack of power and hand speed were shockingly bad. Chavez is very slow and he looks terrible. Lyell was able to hit him all night long with shots. If the guy wasn’t so tiny, slow and weak, he would have done a number on Chavez. It’s great match-making by Chavez’s handlers to pick such a small and limited guy like Lyell, but it doesn’t say much about Chavez Jr. that he’s being matched against this type of fighter at this stage in his career. It reeks of cherry picking at it’s finest.

For those boxing fans who say that Chavez Jr. should be matched up softly because he didn’t have an amateur career, I think that’s nonsense. The guy needs to be put in with better fighters than this, especially when he’s been a pro for eight years. Come on, take the training wheels off already. And as far as Chavez Jr. still getting better as a fighter, I don’t believe he can. His lack of hand speed, power and foot movement suggests that he’s as good as he’ll ever be right now at this moment. Believe me, it’s downhill from here. He’s not going to grow some power and his hand speed will only get worse as he ages, not improve. At this age, Chavez should be as fast as he’ll ever be. But his body is like a fighter in his early 30s. He’s got the fat around the middle and he’s so slow. Just awful to look at.