By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten middleweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 Ko’s) faces the much smaller junior middleweight Billy Lyell (22-8, 4 KO’s) tonight in a 12 round title defense for Chavez Jr. for his WBC Silver middleweight title at the Estadio Banorte, in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. Chavez Jr. will fighting a weak puncher in Lyell, and you have to believe that move was by design. Chavez Jr. will not only be much bigger than Lyell at 6’0″ compared to 5’9″, but he’ll also be the much bigger puncher.

But at least Chavez Jr. is facing a junior middleweight, because he was supposed to have fought welterweight Alfonso Gomez late last year, but was unable to make the fight due to an illness. Chavez Jr. would have been two divisions bigger than Gomez. It’s nice that Chavez’s promoter will be putting him in someone that is almost fighting in the same division as him, but it makes you wonder why Chavez’s handlers are hesitating in matching him against quality fighters from his own weight division.

The Lyell fight will lead to Chavez Jr. fighting for the WBC middleweight title against Sebastian Zbik, despite Chavez Jr. having faced only one fringe contender during the entire eight years of his career when he beat John Duddy last year. It’s sad that Chavez Jr. is going to get a title shot based on such a flimsy career record. It would be better if Chavez Jr. had to fight a guy like David Lemieux before getting a title shot, but then WBC has made it easy for him by catapulting him to the top of the division at number #1.