By Jeff Aronow: WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez will be defending his title against #1 WBC McWilliams Arroyo on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez vs. Avni Yildirim on February 27th on DAZN.
The card will be taking place at the Hard Rock Stadium, Miami, Florida. Martinez vs. Arroyo is a fight good enough to be the headliner on this card, as it’s a much better fight on paper than Canelo’s mismatch against Yildirim.
Matchroom Boxing, the promoters for the event, is looking to beef up the card, which is an excellent idea. They got to put some quality fights on the undercard to get fans interested in subscribing to DAZN.
The main event between WBA/WBC/Ring Magainze super middleweight champion Canelo (54-1-2, 36 KOs) and his WBC mandatory Yildirim (21-2, 12 KOs) figures to end quickly within three rounds.
Arroyo looking to dethrone Martinez
Martinez (17-1, 13 KOs) will be making his third defense of his WBC 112-lb title he captured two years ago with a ninth-round stoppage victory over Cristofer Rosales.
If Martinez wants to win this fight against Arroyo, he will have to go back to his former all-out style of fighting because he’s become too conservative since his fight with Jay Harris.
2008 Olympian Arroyo (20-4, 15 KOs) a much better fighter than his record would have you believe. He’s only lost to the best during his eleven-year professional career.
Arroyo’s defeats:
- Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez
- Takashi Okada
- Amnat Ruenroeng
- Kazuto Ioka
Arroyo gave all of those fighters a difficult time losing, especially Chocolatito in their fight in April 2016. He pushed Chocolatito hard and made him go all out to get the victory.
In 2018, Arroyo defeated former WBC super flyweight champion Carlos Cuadras by a 10 round majority decision. That was easily the best win of Arroyo’s career and showed the kind of talent that he has.
Martinez vs. Arroyo added to the #CaneloYildirim card on February 27! 🥊 pic.twitter.com/oY5JoPGttY
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) January 25, 2021
Jay Harris gave Martinez problems
Julio Cesar Martinez recently destroyed journeyman Moises Calleros (33-10-1, 17 KOs) by a second-round knockout last October in a stay busy fight.
Before that, Martinez struggled to defeat Jay Harris by a 12 round unanimous decision in February 2020 in Frisco, Texas.
That fight was one of the toughest of Martinez’s career, seeing that Harris was outboxing and outslugging him through stretches of the fight.
Fortunately for Martinez, he was able to come on strong at the end to drop Harris in the 10th round to get the victory. Many boxing fans felt that Harris had done enough to rate the win.
With the closeness of that fight, Martinez should have given Harris a rematch to prove that he’s the better fighter.
It’s understandable why Martinez’s management didn’t want to chance-it a second time. Harris has boxing skills, and he might beat Martinez in a second fight.