By Jim Dower: WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) took advantage of his opponent Andy Lee’s tendency to want to slug it out by blasting him out in the 7th round on Saturday night in their HBO televised bout at the Sun Bowl, El Paso, Texas.

Sporting a sizable weight advantage, Chavez Jr. stalked Lee around the small ring, absorbing his shots and hammering him with body blows. The body shots took the starch out of Lee in a big way. At the end of the 6th, Chavez Jr. trapped Lee against the ropes and hammered him with shots, hurting him as the bell ended. Chavez Jr. then landed two more shots after the bell. In the 7th, Chavez Jr. again trapped Lee against the ropes and unloaded with a flurry of shots until the fight was halted by referee Lawrence Cole at 2:21 of the round. The shot that hurt Lee was a right hook to the head that had him looking stunned and helpless.

It was a good performance from Chavez Jr., but he was helped by Lee’s unwise decision to try and slug with the bigger Chavez Jr. However, Lee’s skinny legs didn’t look sturdy enough for him to do much moving, so he probably had no other choice but to slug it out and hope for the best. Chavez Jr. showed a good chin and never seemed bothered by Lee’s heavy blows. HBO analyst Jim Lampley said that Chavez Jr’s power was like a light heavyweight. Fellow analyst Roy Jones Jr. then pointed out that Chavez Jr. probably weighed around 180 pounds for the fight.

Chavez Jr. said later that he’s interested in taking on Sergio Martinez next and knocking him out. The two will be facing each other on September 15th in a pay per view bout on HBO.

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IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez (31-3, 13 KO’s) easily beat contender Daniel Attah (26-11-1, 9 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 100-90, 100-90, and 100-90.

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In other fights on the card:

Abraham Han KO 4 Joe Gomez
Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. TKO 1 Leopoldo Gonzalez
Tremaine Williams KO 3 Theo Johnson
Robert Marroquin TKO 2 Arturo Santiago
Adam Lopez UD 4 Raul Carillo