By Mike Gamm: Today Julio Cesar Chavez Jr finalized his first world title defence against former IBO Middleweight champion Peter Manfredo Jr for the World Boxing Council (WBC) Middleweight title. The fight is scheduled in Mexico at the Estadio Nemesio Diez, Toluca on November 19th.

As you can see Chavez is going for the weaker opposition in the middle division yet still choosing a well recognisable name. Manfredo does draw pretty well on a world and local level having been on the Contender, and the city isn’t too far out of the way of many other big cities where Mexican fight fans in the area could come in and see the fight and Chavez has fought there before.

I think Arum will be looking for big pay per view (PPV) sales for this fight. Besides that in my opinion Manfredo isn’t really a big contender any more, he has aged in his past couple of fights and that is what Freddie Roach is good and picking up on. Chavez will still have to step up his game for this fight he was lucky to win his last fight and to win this he would have to work on not leaving him self open to be hit and basic defence he also lacks. The only advantage he has on Manfredo is youth and work rate.

The reason why Chavez really isn’t been matched up with the top world level fighters such as Sergio Martinez, Miguel Cotto, Matthew Macklin, Saul Alvarez, and Paul Williams is because I suspect Roach and Bob Arum know he is simply not at that level yet and may never will be. Chavez has been gifted his title and is lucky to be champion because of obvious reasons. There are a lot more fighters that deserve a shot at the WBC middle weight title and Chavez Jr can’t told on to it forever without facing a young world class of fighter.