By Jim Dower: Sometimes it pays off to be the son of a legend. In this case, it’s paid off handsomely for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (36-0-1, 29 KOs)who finds himself ranked #4 in the WBC light middleweight division in spite of the fact that he’s faced almost no real live opponents during his short five year boxing career. This Saturday night, Chavez Jr. takes another small move up the career ladder with a fight against Matt Vanda (38-6, 21 KOs), a fighter with a high pressure, face forward style of fighting much the same as Chavez Jr. In Vanda’s case, however, he’s faced the better competition, which would perhaps explain why he’s got six defeats on his record and Chavez Jr. has none at this time.
I suppose most of his inflated ranking is based on the potential of what he will be rather than what he is now as a fighter, which based on the few average quality fighters that he’s faced, doesn’t appear to a championship caliber fighter at this point.