Kellerman: Chavez Jr. isn’t the champion of anything

By Dan Ambrose: HBO analyst Max Kellerman sounded off about Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. capturing the World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight crown last Saturday night against champion Sebastian Zbik by saying that Chavez Jr. isn’t a real world champion, Sergio Martinez is. It’s likely that few boxing fans would disagree with Kellerman about that, as Martinez is seen as the main champion at middleweight.

Unfortunately with boxing now having four champions in each division, it makes a big mess of things and leaves it up to the fans to determine who they personally feel is the best fighter in each division. Chavez Jr. didn’t help make a case for himself that he’s the number #1 guy by struggling to beat Zbik, the WBC paper champion by a 12 round majority decision.

This is what Kellerman had to say after Chavez-Zbik fight last Saturday night: “Belts are promotional tools nowadays. The belt that Chavez Jr. just won was stripped from the real middleweight champion of the world. Chavez Jr. isn’t the champion of anything except that sanctioning belt. He’s not really a world champion and not so far in the class of the world champion Sergio Martinez. That said, he does have a belt cause he has connections with the fans, partly because he’s Julio Cesar Chavez senior’s son. Clearly, he’s [Chavez Sr.] is the great champion of Mexico. Certainly the most popular ever. And so that certainly has opened doors for Junior. But he [Chavez Jr.] has a real connection to the fans and they to him.”

Wow! That’s not exactly a huge endorsement of Chavez Jr., is it?