Andy Lee ready to expose Chavez Jr. this Saturday in El Paso

By Boxing News - 06/11/2012 - Comments

Image: Andy Lee ready to expose Chavez Jr. this Saturday in El PasoBy Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr’s moment has finally come to where after toiling away for nine years as a pro, he’ll be facing his first actual good opponent in Andy Lee (28-1, 20 KO’s) on Saturday night in front of what could be a huge pro-Chavez Jr. crowd of 40,000 fans at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.

For the 26-year-old Chavez Jr., he’ll either have talent to survive this bout or he’ll fail miserably by getting knocked out and badly humiliated by the southpaw Lee. Chavez Jr has a big advantage in that the huge crowd will mainly be guys backing him. You can expect the crowd to be over 99% pro-Chavez Jr. fans. What this means is that these fans will be cheering wildly for Chavez Jr. if he even looks at Lee with a hint of aggression, and the judges will very likely score the fight in Chavez Jr’s favor if it goes to a decision. This is why it’s vitally important that Lee does the best he can to knock Chavez Jr. out, because he’s probably not going to be given any decisions in El Paso on Saturday.

Chavez Jr. had the benefit of picking up the WBC title from former champion Sebastian Zbik, who can’t crack eggs with his shots. This was the perfect opportunity that you could ever think of for Chavez Jr., because he would likely be knocked out if he faced former WBC champion Sergio Martinez, WBO champ Dmitry Pirog, WBA champs Felix Sturm and Gennedy Golovkin. But the non-punching Zbik was the perfect opponent for Chavez Jr. to get a paper title, and that’s what he did.

Since winning the title, Chavez Jr. has taken it easy, beating fringe contender Peter Manfredo Jr,. and Marco Antonio Rubio. Neither guys was much of a threat, and Chavez Jr. was able to win in easy fights. He didn’t look great against Rubio, but that’s because he doesn’t have much power and he tends to crowd his opponents instead of using his reach.



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