By Allan Fox: With the news about former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. testing positive for Marijuana for his loss to Sergio Martinez last Saturday night, it means that the 37-year-old Martinez will have to look to fight someone else for his first title defense of his World Boxing Council strap in the first half of next year.

Chavez Jr., 26, will likely be suspended for up to 1 year by the Nevada State Athletic C omission and that means that Martinez will have to defend his title against someone else other than Chavez Jr. unless Martinez wants to sit around and do nothing for 8 to 12 months while waiting for Chavez Jr’s suspension to be over.

Martinez’s promoter Lou Dibella needs to find the best available opponent for him to fight in May or June of next year, whenever Martinez’s injured right knee heals. Martinez will be going under the knife next week in Spain to have his right knee operated on to repair potential torn cartilage. The injury occurred before the Chavez Jr. fight but was worsened during the fight when Martinez was knocked down in the 12th. Under the best possible outlook, Martinez could be ready to fight by May or June. However, there are always a chance for a setback if Martinez starts training too soon or too hard on the healing knee. In that case we could see him having to endure additional surgeries for the problem to be corrected.

If Martinez is ready to fight in May or June of next year there are some interesting options available to him. He can fight one of the below fighters:

Gennady Golovkin
Martin Murray
Jermain Taylor
Fernando Guerrero
Andy Lee
Matthew Macklin

Martinez might be better off not facing someone too difficult because he doesn’t want to risk losing his title and missing out on a big payday rematch against Chavez Jr. in the second half of next year.