By Allan Fox: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) may have been easily beaten and badly humbled by Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s) last Saturday night in losing his WBC 160 pound title, but Chavez Jr. believes that his performance in that fight showed that he’s right up there with Martinez in terms of talent.

Chavez Jr. said after the fight “I showed the world I’m at Sergio’s level.”

That’s kind of an interesting remark from Chavez Jr. because when you look at the fight from a distance of the entire fight and not just last minute of the 12th round where he knocked Martinez down, it really didn’t look to me like Chavez Jr. was at Martinez’s level in terms of talent. I mean, I might have missed something along the way that would make me think Chavez Jr. was in Martinez’s league but from what I saw Chavez Jr. looked lost in there with Martinez. Apart from that big right hand that Chavez Jr. landed in the 12th round to hurt Martinez, I saw nothing in Chavez Jr’s performance that would suggest to me that he’s on the same level as Martinez from that one performance.

Here are the areas where I felt Chavez Jr. WASN’T on Martinez’s level last Saturday night:

* Hand speed

* Power

* Defense

* Foot movement

* Ring intelligence

* Jab

* Work rate

I guess if you ignore all those areas where Chavez Jr. looked lacking you could maybe see him on the same level as Martinez, if you also ignored the first 11 1/2 rounds of the fight as well. You can’t look at those rounds and come to the conclusion that Chavez Jr. is on the same level as Martinez, because he simply wasn’t performing. The only thing that Chavez Jr. did last Saturday night was land a big right hand that hurt Martinez when he was a little too overconfident in the 12th round.

Martinez should have known that Chavez Jr. was loading up with everything he had in order to try and get a come from behind stoppage. It was a mistake on Martinez’s part and I doubt he’ll ever repeat it in the future when he’s so far ahead like he was against Chavez Jr.