By Dan Ambrose: The World Boxing Council basically cleared the way for unbeaten middleweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) to fight for the WBC middleweight title without risking getting his head taken off by moving the current WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (46-2-2, 25 KO’s) into the position of Emeritus champion after only one title defense. This allows the 24-year-old Chavez Jr., the son of boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez, to fight Sebastian Zbik (30-0, 10 KO’s), who the WBC has now made the WBC champion, for the title this year after Chavez Jr. defeats the light hitting 2nd tier junior middleweight Billy Lyell (22-8, 4 KO’s) on January 29th.

The WBC sure has made things easy for Chavez Jr. to try and win the WBC title, because he had no chance whatsoever of beating Martinez in this lifetime due to Chavez’s mediocre boxing skills. But this allows Chavez Jr. to have a decent chance of beating the light hitting Zbik, and then becoming the WBC paper champion. The WBC will then have Chavez Jr., a fighter that is popular in Mexico because of his father’s name, as the champion. It’s a good move for the WBC because Chavez is a proven money maker, which means bigger sanctioning fees for the WBC when Chavez fights.

It’s hard to see Chavez Jr. holding onto the title for very long because he doesn’t look very good and gets hit way too much. However, once Chavez is the champion, he’ll likely be able to defend his WBC title every time in Mexico, and he’s hard to beat when fighting over there. Chavez Jr. has already escaped defeats in fights Matt Vanda in their first fight and Chavez’s two fight with Carlos Molina. I saw Chavez losing all three of those fights. Despite having an impressive 41-0 record, Chavez Jr. has fought only one top tier fighter and that was fringe contender John Duddy, who many people see as a B level fighter. Chavez Jr. has been shielded from dangerous opponents throughout his career, and by the WBC pushing Martinez into the Emeritus position, they have effectively shielded Chavez from having to face Martinez and likely suffer a terrible beating. I see Chavez doing well against the lesser middleweight contenders if he beats Zbik, but when he’s finally forced to face anyone good, he’s going to likely get knocked out and beaten up. I see David Lemieux as being a lot better than Chavez. That’s a fighter that Chavez won’t be able to avoid for long unless the WBC comes up with some kind of designation for Lemieux to get him out of the way like they did with Martinez.