By Jason Kim: On June 16th, Andy Lee (28-1, 20 KO’s) will be challenging WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (45-0-1, 31 KO’s) at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, Lee is going to be facing Chavez Jr. in a place where he’s got a huge fan base, and it’s going to be like facing Chavez Jr. at home.

Technically, Chavez Jr. is from Mexico, and not Texas, But Texas has a large Mexican community and the state borders Mexico. Lee will have few fans that will be rooting for him in this fight, and he’s going to have to put on a serious beat down if he wants to come out of there as the winner.

Having seen a lot of Chavez Jr’s fights, I’ve seen him win questionable decisions in the past in fights where he appeared to lose. Lee is going to have to put on an extra special performance if he wants to walk away with Chavez Jr’s World Boxing Council title.

Lee can punch, and is deadly with his right hook and left hand shots. However, after Chavez Jr. re-hydrates after the weigh-in on June 15th, Lee will likely be facing a 180 pound cruiserweight and that could be a problem if he’s out-weighed by 15 pounds. This means that Lee’s shots that normally would hurt a 160 pound fighter likely won’t do much against the 180 pound Chavez Jr. because he’ll have more size to soak up Lee’s shots.

Lee’s best hope of winning the fight is to shoot for a knockout as fast as he can in the early rounds before Chavez Jr’s weight starts to be a problem for him. Ideally, they’d have a secondary weigh-in on the day of the fight to keep Chavez Jr. from ballooning to 180 pounds. However, that’s not going to happen and it’s going to be up to Lee to try and find a way to beat the much heavier Chavez Jr.