By Dan Ambrose: It looks as if the World Boxing Council (WBC) is going to cave in and allow WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (45-0-1, 31 KO’s) get in another optional title defense rather than forcing him to fight WBC Emeritus middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s), according to Dan Rafael. Chavez Jr. is set to fight #7 WBC Martin Murray (23-0-1, 10 KO’s) on July 16th in El Paso, Texas.

If you were hoping that the WBC would finally force Chavez Jr. to take the fight with Martinez, this has got to be disappointing news, because Murray fought for a title in his last fight against WBA World middleweight champion Felix Sturm last December and was held to a 12 round draw. Giving him a second chance against another champion just seems wrong. Murray was rocked big time against the light hitting Sturm in the 12th round in that fight and a lot of boxing fans, this writer included, felt that Murray should have lost that fight. But regardless, Chavez Jr. fighting Murray is yet another safe fight for Chavez Jr. because Murray isn’t a big puncher and nowhere near the level of the 37-year-old Sergio Martinez.

However, a lot of people have given up on Chavez Jr. ever facing Martinez, at least while Martinez is still cogent with all mental and physical faculties. If he starts losing it, the fight likely get made but not before then. The WBC may some day try and force Chavez Jr. to fight Martinez, but he’s popular enough now to merely give up the WBC strap and go after one of the interim jobs or after one of the weaker middleweight champions to beat them with his superior size. As long there isn’t weigh-in the day of the fight, Chavez Jr. will be okay against the other middleweight champions. The WBC can’t make him do anything that he or his promoter doesn’t want to do at this point. Once you become bigger than the belts, titles really don’t matter anymore.