By Dan Ambrose: Freddie Roach believes that his fighter WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) isn’t as good as his famous father Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. (107-6-2, 86 KO’s) was during his career but Roach thinks that Chavez Jr. is on his way to becoming as good.

Roach said “He’s [Chavez Jr] a tough, tough kid. He has a great chin, one his best assets. These guys can’t walk though punches like he can. He wants to be as good as his father. He’s slowly getting there.”

I don’t blame Roach for wanting to get excited about Chavez Jr., because if he continues to succeed it’ll make him look all the better for training him. However, Chavez Jr’s ability to win fights and walk through punches seems to be centered around his huge weight advantage against his opponents. By ballooning up to 180 lbs for his important fights, he’s got a great advantage over his lighter middleweight opponents, many of which fight in the low 160s.

I don’t agree with Roach about Chavez Jr. getting to where his famous father Chavez Sr. was. Chavez Jr. doesn’t fight nearly as good as his father, and I don’t think he’s getting nearer to him. If anything, I think Chavez Jr. is getting farther away with each fight because I feel that his best performance was against John Duddy in June of 2010. Chavez Jr. was light in that fight and did a good job jabbing, throwing combinations and moving. It was Chavez Jr. at his best in that fight. Since then, he’s started to have weight problems, bloating up for his next bout against Billy Lyell in January 2011, and steadily fighting in the 180 range against the likes of Sebastian Zbik, Peter Manfredo Jr., Marco Antonio Rubio and Andy Lee.

Chavez Sr. never had weight problems and didn’t fight 20 pounds over his weigh-in limit. Chavez Sr. looked sensational in beating the likes of Edwin Rosario, Roger Mayweather and Meldrick Taylor, among many others. I don’t see Chavez Jr. ever getting to anywhere near where his father was in his prime.

Sergio Martinez is going to have a lot to say about how Chavez Jr’s legacy compares to his father Chavez Sr. when Martinez meets Chavez Jr. in the ring on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in their pay per view bout on HBO. If Chavez Jr. is going to be thought of in the made mode as his father then he’s going to have to beat Martinez and beat him convincingly.