By Dan Ambrose: Fighting at a catchweight of 169lb last Saturday night, former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs) picked up his 50th win of his career in defeating 29-year-old super middleweight Dominik Britisch (32-3-1, 11 KOs) in beating him by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision in front of a very small crowd of boxing fans at the Arena Monterrey in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.
For those who remember how Chavez Jr. used to fight in front of large arenas full of fans, it was strange to see him fighting in front of a tiny crowd last night. It’s unclear how many fans showed up to see the 30-year-old Chavez Jr. fight last night, but it wasn’t many.
Chavez Jr. won the fight by the scores 99-91, 99-91 and 99-91. The 29-year-old Britisch rarely threw punches in the fight. He seemed to be more focused on covering up and hanging on the ropes. Britsch looked nothing like the once young German fighter with slicked back hair that dominated over-matched opposition put in with him a decade ago. Britsch looked more like a soft, middle-aged fighter that wasn’t in the best of shape just soaking up rounds against the A-side Chavez Jr.
This wasn’t even a fight. Britsch did nothing last night other than take shots for 10 rounds. He did a decent job blocking a lot of the punches Chavez Jr. threw, but it wasn’t any kind of a fight in the classical sense. It’s a good thing though, because Chavez Jr. looked like the same mediocre fighter that lost to Andrzej Fonfara in 2015. Chavez Jr. looked very slow on his feet in crowding Britisch, and bending over at the waste while moving forward. A good fighter would have torn Chavez Jr. apart with the slow way that he was crowding while bending forward. He was begging to be hit by an uppercut all night long by Britsch, but the German fighter didn’t have that weapon in his arsenal.
Sadly, Chavez Jr. said after the fight that he’s NOW ready to fight for a world title against one of the champions, presumably in the 168lb division. If you saw how slow and easy to hit Chavez Jr. was last night against the German Britisch, you would realize that he’s NOT ready for a title shot against any of the champions. I don’t care who Chavez Jr. fights for a world title, he’s not going to win unless he improves dramatically. Chavez Jr. is just too slow on his feet, and he still has that bad habit of giving up his height and reach by crowding his opponents and bending forward. That style might have worked for Chavez Jr. when he was melting down to fight smaller, mediocre guys at 160, but it’s not going to work against the younger, bigger, stronger and more talented fighters in the 168lb division.
Chavez Jr. said this to Fight News about the results of his fight against Britisch:
“I felt good and worked for a ten round fight,” said Chavez Jr. “I am conscious my pace slowed down in the second half of the fight, but it was naturally because of the inactivity. I didn’t go for the knockout because of that reason. I wanted to conserve my energy since I didn’t know how my body was going to react. I am happy with the win and my performance. I am ready to come back in two or three months. I don’t need another fight. I am ready for a world title fight with anybody or any other big fight,” said Chavez Jr.
Could Chavez Jr. be given a world title fight so soon after his return from a 1 ½ year layoff from boxing? Sure, if one of the champions at super middleweight wants to give Chavez Jr. a title shot straightaway after his nothing win over Britsch last night, I suppose it could happen. I don’t think it would be fair to Chavez Jr., the boxing fans or the contenders that he jumps in front of for him to fight for a title.
Chavez Jr. needs work in the gym, and he needs to fight some good contenders to show whether he has the talent to compete against a champion. It would be bad news for Chavez Jr. to fight for a world title off of his win over Britsch, because that fight looked more like him fighting a sparring partner. Britsch was never a great fighter even during the prime of his career, but he looked terrible last night. That was really bad to watch.
Chavez Jr’s last fight against Marcos Reyes was a much better opponent than Britsch, because at least Reyes tried to fight. He made it competitive, even though he looked much smaller than Chavez Jr. Reyes was pulled up from the middleweight division to fight Chavez Jr. at a catchweight of 170lbs. Don’t ask me why Chavez Jr. wanted to fight another middleweight instead of a super middleeight, because he was supposed to have moved up to the 168lb division in 2014. Chavez Jr. moved up in weight alright, but he twice fought middleweight journeyman Brian Vera at light heavyweight and super middleweight instead of someone from the 168lb division.
This was the fight that Chavez Jr. said that would tell him whether he still has the talent to compete with the best in the sport. The fight was such a mismatch, Chavez Jr. might have gotten the wrong impression of what he has left in the tank, because Britisch appeared to be more of a sparring partner than an actual opponent. The German fighter threw very punches, and he seemed to be mostly just covering up like a good sparring partner would do. If Chavez Jr. believes that his win over the limited Britisch means that he can compete with the top fighters at 168 or even at 160, I think he’s mistaken. Chavez Jr. did not show the kind of talent that suggests that he could beat any of the top fighters and I’m talking ANY of the top guys in both of those divisions.