By Jason Kim: WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. put in a mostly disappointing performance last Saturday night in losing his title to challenger Sergio Martinez by a 12 round unanimous decision in Las Vegas, Nevada. Despite holding an impressive 46-0 record going into the fight, this was really the first time in Chavez Jr’s career that he was forced to step up and face a quality opponent and things didn’t work out well for him.
If there’s area in Chavez Jr’s game that you could point to that led to him losing the fight so badly you’d have to say it was inability to handle the constant movement from Martinez. Chavez Jr. was never able to deal with Martinez’s mobility, which kept Chavez Jr. from getting his shots off. This was something that Chavez Jr’s trainer Freddie Roach should have worked on during training camp so that Chavez Jr. could handle Martinez’s movement. Unfortunately, Chavez Jr. looked paralyzed from the in and out attacks and the side movements that Martinez made. Chavez Jr. couldn’t cut off the ring or get his shots off.
It looked like Chavez Jr. could only throw punches when Martinez would stop, and this in turn would allow Chavez Jr. to set his feet to wind up with his hooks. Chavez Sr., relayed a message to one of his trainers telling Chavez Jr. not to wait to set his feet before throwing. But Chavez Jr. was incapable of following this advice for some reason. Chavez Sr. was capable of fighting someone on the move, but we found out last night that Chavez Jr. simply couldn’t do it and he ended up losing badly.
Martinez allowed Chavez Jr. to finally get his shots off in the 12th when he stopped moving long enough for Chavez Jr. to set his feet and plow a big right into the side of Martinez’s head, badly hurting him. But after knocking Martinez to the canvas, Chavez Jr. was unable to connect with some of his biggest punches. The ones that did hit Martinez weren’t nearly as powerful as the ones that missed. The accuracy wasn’t there for Chavez Jr. when Martinez could no longer move due to an injured right leg.
Roach has a lot to work on with Chavez Jr. if he’s going to improve him enough to beat Martinez in a rematch, if there is one. The Chavez Jr. that fought last night will lose to Martinez in a rematch, and would also likely get beaten badly by fighters like Gennady Golovkin and Daniel Geale. Unless Roach can teach Chavez Jr. how to handle movement from his opponents, he’s going to fail against the best guys he faces. In that case, Bob Arum might want to consider cashing out with the young Chavez Jr. as soon as possible if he’s unable to improve.
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