By Dan Ambrose: According to the latest boxing news, WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (43-0-1, 30 KO’s) will be looking to take the safe route for his first title defense of his World Boxing Council belt and is looking at facing Peter Manfredo Jr., Darren Barker or Marco Antonio Rubio next instead of facing Sergio Martinez or Miguel Cotto.

Chavez Jr’s promoter Bob Arum doesn’t want to put Chavez Jr. in with Cotto yet and there is not word whether Arum will ever put Chavez Jr. in with Martinez. With those fights off the table, Manfredo Jr., Barker and Rubio’s names have come up. By far, Rubio would be the best option of the three because of his recent win over David Lemiuex and his big power.

However, Rubio might not get the opportunity if he’s deemed too dangerous for the nearly defenseless Chavez Jr. We saw in Chavez’s close win over Sebatian Zbik on June 4th that Chavez Jr. is totally wide open for anything throw his way and even a light puncher like Zbik was able to make a complete mess of Chavez’s face and almost beat him. If you put Chavez in with a big puncher like Rubio, Chavez Jr. could be taken out rather quick.

It’s admirable that Chavez Jr. can take such a good shot but every fighter has their limit. Rubio hits a lot harder than anyone that’s been with Chavez Jr. yet and it would be dangerous to have Rubio teeing off on Chavez Jr. all night. Barker and Manfredo Jr. are lighter punchers and one of them will likely get the call. It probably won’t be Barker because he’s an unknown in the United States. Manfredo, though, has fought on television a number of times in the U.S and has a small following.

As horrible as Chavez Jr. looked against Zbik, it would still be a very risky fight for him but what can you do? Chavez Jr. has to fight one of then contenders, as he’s a champion now and can no longer feast on B level opponents like he’s done in the past. My guess is Manfredo gets the fight. But Chavez Jr. is going to have to face Rubio sooner or later and I don’t see that as a fight that Chavez Jr. can win. Arum might want to cash out on Chavez Jr. with a fight against Cotto after the Manfredo fight because Chavez Jr. is too flawed to hold onto the WBC belt for long without being matched carefully in my view.