(Photo credit: Alma Montiel) By Chris Williams: WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr’s trainer Freddie Roach sees Chavez Jr. beating tough challenger Marco Antonio Rubio on Saturday night and then moving on to bigger things in the division.

Roach told ESPN “Definitely his [Chavez Jr.] toughest fight. Rubio has a lot of experience, a lot of wins, a lot of knockouts. This is definitely the most experienced and best puncher we’ve fought. So it is a big test for us, but I expect to pass with flying colors and go to bigger things down the road.”

Roach has only been with Chavez Jr. for four fights and only one of those fights – Sebastian Zbik – was against a decent opponent. It’s not like Chavez Jr. has been ripping through the best of the middleweight division for ages or anything. The way Roach is talking he comes across like he’s been with Chavez Jr. for a long period. Four fights, that’s it.

I don’t know what Roach is talking about when he says “Bigger things down the road.” Is he talking about Antonio Margarito? That’s who Chavez’s promoter Bob Arum wants to match him up against next. I think that’s a bigger fight as far as money goes but that’s not a bigger fight compared to if Arum were to match Chavez Jr. against someone who can actually still fight like Sergio Martinez, Dmitriy Pirog or Gennady Golovkin. Those are the guys I consider to be the best fighters in the middleweight division, but I kind of doubt that Roach is talking about them when he’s talking bigger fights for him.

It’s no secret that Chavez Jr. has been carefully matched to avoid guys that are really good like Martinez, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change if he can get by Rubio tomorrow night because Arum is already talking about Margarito next. Arum was talking about putting Chavez Jr. in with Miguel Cotto next but he suddenly changed his tune recently and stopped mentioning his name. I wonder if that has anything to do with Cotto agreeing to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. rather than Manny Pacquiao?

I think Rubio is made to order for Chavez Jr. and will lose. Rubio is a decent fighter but he’s a medium sized middleweight and he’s never beaten a really good middleweight before. He got beat Kelly Pavlik in 2009, and was getting his backside handed to him last year against the inexperienced 22-year-old David Lemieux but was able to come back in the 6th round and force a stoppage in the 7th against a completely tuckered out Lemieux.

Rubio was lucky in that fight because most fighters don’t gas as badly as Lemieux. Chavez Jr. will beat Rubio and a lot of boxing fans will get excited about him and fail to realize how limited Rubio is. This isn’t Sergio Martinez, Pirog or Golovkin. I could respect Chavez Jr. if he fought and beat any of those guys, but you’ve got to take a good look at Rubio against Lemieux and Pavlik to realize how limited he is.

I’d suggest to anyone to watch Rubio’s fights against those guys Youtube and they’ll know what I’m talking about. Rubio has been completely scouted out and deemed safe for Chavez Jr. No way would they have agreed to fight him if he had any chance of really winning this fight.