By Allen Fox: WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (44-0-1, 31 KO’s) has been given a free pass against the middleweight division’s best fighter in Sergio Martinez by the World Boxing Council, who after receiving a request from the 25-year-old Chavez Jr. on Friday to take a voluntary defense against Marco Antonio Rubio (53-5-1, 46 KO’s), the WBC gave Chavez Jr. the permission he was asking for to shoot Martinez and take the easier fight. However, this may not be an easy fight at all for Chavez, as the 31-year-old Rubio can really punch and he’s more skilled than Chavez Jr.

Rubio has been avoided by Chavez for quite some time and obviously this was a fight that Chavez Jr. probably didn’t want to take but really needed to in order to get him ready for a tough fight against Martinez. Up until now, Chavez Jr. has had little preparation for what’s in store for him when he faces Martinez in the future – if ever does. Rubio will give Chavez Jr. that test and it’s really debatable whether Chavez Jr. will past that test without some kind of controversy. He’s already got several fights on his record that arguably should be losses in his two fights against Carlos Molina and his first fight with Matt Vanda.

Rubio may take the judges out of the equation for this fight by blasting Chavez out with power shots. Rubio already knocked off a highly hyped but limited fighter in David Lemieux earlier in the year in a 7th round TKO win last April. Lemieux merely waited Lemieux out until he had exhausted himself by throwing too many punches in the first five rounds of action. When Rubio turned on the gas in the 6th, Lemieux wasn’t ready for Rubio’s sudden surge of power and he hit the deck, and later was stopped in the next round. Chavez Jr. is similar in that he likes to start off quickly and slug it out. He’s not someone you want to wait on, though, because he’s big and will hurt you if you let him throw shots without firing something back. But Rubio can take this fight in the 2nd half because Chavez Jr. does tire and loses a lot of his power in the last half of his fights.