By Jason Kim: World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (43-0-1, 30 KO’s) will be making his first title defense of his newly won title against Peter Manfredo Jr. (37-6, 20 KO’s) on November 19th at the the Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas.

The venue was just named and it’s likely that Chavez’s promoter Bob Arum is hoping to get a large Mexican crowd that shows up to see Chavez Jr., the son of the famous Julio Cesar Chavez, fight. Manfredo, ranked #5 by the WBC, is a decent opponent but hardly deserving of the #5 ranking by the World Boxing Council.

It’s difficult to imagine that Mandredo, a fighter that lost to Jeff Lacy, should be ranked above guys like Andy Lee. But it is very convenient for Chavez Jr. that the WBC has Manfredo ranked so high, because this at least makes it easier for Chavez Jr. to be able to fight Manfredo without taking a lot of criticism for taking a soft opponent.

But it probably wouldn’t have stopped Chavez Jr. from being matched against Manfredo Jr. by his promoters no matter what Manfredo’s ranking. They obviously weren’t looking for a tough opponent in Chavez’s first defense of his title and you can’t blame them when you look at Chavez’s recent fights against Billy Lyell and Sebastian Zbik.

Chavez Jr. looked awful, just awful. He barewly beat Zbik, but took an enormous amount of punishment against a guy that Chavez Jr. outweighed by a signficant margin after rehydrating up to 180 lbs after the weigh-in.

Chavez should win this fight but it won’t be easy because he’s really not particularly talented. But the real question is how long before Chavez Jr. is forced to fight someone good? There’s a number of top fighters that want to face him like Sergio Martinez and Marco Antonio Rubio, but have had no luck in getting him in the ring.