By Dan Ambrose: WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward was really surprised by how poorly former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fought against Sergio Martinez in losing his World Boxing Council 160 pound title on September 15th. Ward said he expected a much better effort from Chavez Jr. in that fight than what he showed.

Speaking to Jim Lampley on HBO’s The Fight Game, Ward said “The surprising thing that happened was that Chavez didn’t put up the kind of fight that people thought he would. I don’t know if that happens to do with the recent news that came out [about Chavez Jr’s positive test for marijuana metabolites]. I expected Martinez to do what he did, but I expected a little bit more from Chavez Jr.”

Chavez Jr. only appeared to really put out a strong effort in the 12th round, which was the round that he hurt and knocked Martinez down in. Chavez Jr. did next to nothing in the first 11 rounds of the fight, as he just followed Martinez around like a big puppy, throwing few punches and looking completely out of his league. Chavez Jr. had the appearance of someone who really didn’t want to be there and was just going through the motions.

I do think Martinez’s superior talent had a lot to do with how poorly Chavez Jr. fought, but I also believe that Chavez Jr. just wasn’t mentally prepared to fight a hard fight for 12 rounds. Maybe that’s because of his inexperience going into the fight. Chavez Jr’s promoters at Top Rank had done such a good job match-making for him all these years by putting him in with mostly mediocre middleweights that when he was finally forced to fight someone good in Martinez, Chavez Jr. looked way out of his class.

Chavez Jr’s weight could also have been a factor. He melted down from over 180 to get down to 160, and he then put the water weight back on in 24 hours. Having that much weight shifted back and forth in 24 hours likely had Chavez Jr. feeling worried about possibly running out of gas had he fought really hard early in the fight instead of just for the last round in the 12th. If you look at the very end of the fight, Chavez Jr. had punched himself out while trying to go for a knockout. Martinez was the one that was landing all the shots in the last 10 seconds of the fight as Chavez Jr. looked completely gassed out.