By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (43-0-1, 30 KO’s) has already given away his main strategy to beat the slender 6’3″ challenger Ronald Hearns (26-2, 20 KO’s) on September 17th at the Palenque, in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. The 25-year-old Chavez Jr. is going to try and fight the lanky Hearns on the inside rather than taking his chances against the much better right hand from Hearns on the outside.

Chavez Jr. doesn’t throw jabs and even when he does, he’s got a below average jab. Hearns, for his part, has an excellent jab and if he can keep the slow, defenseless Chavez Jr. on the outside he could riddle him to pieces and possibly win a decision.

Getting a decision win will be a tremendous ask for the 32-year-old Hearns because the fight will be taking place in the home country of Chavez Jr. where it might require something beyond the norm to walk out of there with Chavez’s World Boxing Council belt on the 17th.

Chavez Jr. struggled badly in capturing the WBC belt against paper champion Sebastian Zbik last June, beating him by a close 12 round majority decision. Chavez Jr. going life and death with an average fighter like Zbik is a very bad sign for him. What it means is that Chavez Jr. is more of a fringe contender than a real champion, and that means a fringe contender like Hearns has an excellent chance of beating him if he fights his game.

Hearns can’t let Chavez Jr. fight in close because Hearns doesn’t fight well on the inside. He’s a guy that needs to be at the proper punching distance to set up his straight hands to pole axe Chavez Jr. the same way Hearns’ famous father Tommy Hearns liked to knock guys out with rights to the head during his career.