By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Freddie Roach thinks that WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) should move up in weight to at least the 168 pound division due to how hard it is for Chavez Jr. to make weight for his fights at middleweight. However, Chavez Jr’s isn’t hearing it and is not interested in moving up to the super middleweight division.
He’s happy fighting at middleweight, where he often drains down from as high as 180 lbs to make weight at 160.
Roach told RingTV.com “I always say that Chavez should go to 168, but he always disagrees with me. He says he’s okay, but I know that I’ve seen him suffer to make that fight. I believe he would be a stronger fighter at 168….He goes into the ring at 180 or 185, and beats up on smaller guys and it has worked out well for him.”
Roach goes on to say that he hopes the 26-year-old Chavez Jr. will finally move up in weight to the super middleweight division if he’s able to beat 37-year-old Sergio Martinez this Saturday in their Las Vegas based fight. Roach feels that Chavez Jr. can find a lot of good opponents for him to fight if he moves up to 168 lbs.
It’s not hard to understand why Chavez Jr. might be reluctant to move up in weight to the super middleweight or light heavyweight divisions. His weight advantage that he’s been having over middleweights would pretty much completely disappear completely in his first fight at super middleweight or light heavyweight. The loss of the size advantage could be significant for Chavez Jr. if he’s not stronger at those weight classes like Roach believes he’ll be. I have my doubts.
Chavez Jr. will be stronger at 168 lbs, but his biggest advantage, his size, won’t be there for him against super middleweights and he’d have to find another way of winning. The super middleweights are pretty talented compared to the guys that Chavez Jr. has been fighting at 160 lbs, and it’ doubtful that Chavez Jr. would be able to beat them just on basic pressure and inside fighting.
Most of the good super middleweights know how to move around the ring to nullify an old fashioned pressure fighter like Chavez Jr., and without a 15 pound weight advantage over his opponents, Chavez Jr. could find himself as just another contender in the division. I couldn’t see Chavez Jr. winning a title unless the World Boxing Council decided to strip WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward and give him an Emeritus status and then have Chavez Jr. fight for Ward’s title against the #1 contender Nikola Sjekola. Somehow I see something like that happening in a second. Ward being stripped of his WBC title by the WBC santioning body and then Chavez Jr. being allowed to leap frog over the top 168 pound contenders to fight Sjekola for Ward’s old title. Of course, none of this would likely happen unless Chavez Jr. can no longer make 160 lbs and he’s currently doing a pretty job of it right now.
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