By Eric Thomas: The chances are high that WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) will lose his title on Saturday night against Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) and will be knocked out in the process. The cards point towards Chavez Jr. getting exposed in this fight by the better trained Martinez in front of a packed Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

However, it won’t be the end of the road for Chavez Jr., because he’s going to get additional chances at world titles at middleweight and he’ll likely get one really soon. With Chavez Jr’s popularity, I’d be surprised if he had to wait more than one fight to get one of the other middleweight champions to bend over backwards to give another crack at a world title, even if meant having to fight the challenger Chavez Jr. in Texas where he would likely have a big advantage in terms of ring size and other items.

Chavez Jr. doesn’t need to put a lot of pressure on himself on Saturday because things are going to work out well for him no matter how badly things go. If he’s smart, he’ll take a knee or simply quit if he starts taking too much punishment from Martinez. It’s better to live to fight another day then to have Martinez spent 12 rounds blasting him with left hands and right hooks.

What Chavez Jr. doesn’t need is to take a beating that could shorten his career. This is why he needs to quit if the situation suddenly starts looking hopeless for him. He doesn’t need the WBC title. He can always go after the IBF/WBA champion Daniel Geale, the WBA regular champ Gennady Golovkin or the WBO champ Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam. It’s much smarter for Chavez Jr. to try and get fights against them then it would be for him to take a beating against Martinez.