By Dan Ambrose: World Boxing Council (WBC) president Jose Sulaiman is interested in seeing former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) face the current WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s).
It’s unclear why it should matter to Sulaiman that Chavez Jr. and Martinez fight again considering Martinez’s lopsided 12 round unanimous decision over Chavez Jr. was pretty conclusive. There was no doubt about whom the better fighter was of the two and Chavez Jr. took a real beating in the fight.
Sulaiman said to the record.com.mx “Give it a try, Martinez.”
Sulaiman has reportedly already spoken to the 38-year-old Martinez about facing Chavez Jr. again but it’s unclear what Martinez’s thoughts are about the rematch. He recently said that he would only face Chavez Jr. again if he agreed to the full random blood testing for the fight. And there are also reports that Martinez wants a rehydration limit to make sure that Chavez Jr. doesn’t gain back too much weight after they weigh-in for the fight the day before.
In their bout last September, Chavez Jr. wasn’t weighed on the night of the fight for some reason but he looked huge compared to Martinez.
In just guessing at Chavez Jr’s weight for the fight, I’d say he was easily 190 lbs, perhaps as much as 195. He was huge and you can’ understand why Martinez might want Chavez Jr. to have a limit for how much weight he can put on for the fight.
The thing with rehydration limits is they don’t work unless there’s a huge penalty involved in terms of money because Martinez isn’t going to walk away from the fight if Chavez Jr. balloons up to 190 the day after weighing in at 160. Martinez would still likely take the fight and end up facing a guy that outweighs him by 20 pounds.
The thing is if they can have a steep rehydration penalty $100 K per round, then it could be a worthwhile thing. So if Martinez can Chavez Jr. to agree to no more than 15 pounds in weight for rehydration, then Martinez can potentially make over $1 million if Chavez Jr. balloons up 30 pounds in weight after rehydrating.
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