By Jim Dower: Middleweight contender John Duddy (29-1, 18 KO’s) will be fighting unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) in June, according to news from Boxing Fanhouse. This is a splendid match-up of two contenders that as of yet as still almost entirely unproven in the light middleweight and middleweight divisions.

This is a good fight in that both Chavez Jr. and Duddy have a fairly significant fan base despite having never really proven that they belong in the top 15. Duddy, 30, is a slugger without much defense and who has been highly ranked in the middleweight division for well over a year. Duddy was beaten last year in a fight against Billy Lyell by a 10 round decision.

Duddy has come back from that loss with three wins over Michi Munoz, Juan Astorga, and Michael Medina, though none of those fighters were particularly impressive performances from Duddy. In his last fight, Duddy defeated Medina by a 10 round decision on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey bout on March 13th.

Duddy failed to impress in that fight, as he took a lot of shots from Medina and didn’t look all that powerful. Duddy did put in perhaps the best fight of the night on that card, but that’s not saying a whole lot because the entire card was filled with nothing but horrible mismatches from top to bottom.

Chavez Jr. defeated Troy Rowland by a 10 round decision in November. Chavez tested positive for the banned substance Furosemide, a diuretic. The Nevada Athletic Commission then gave Chavez Jr. a six month suspension. The suspension will end just in time for Chavez’s fight with Duddy in June.

The Duddy-Chavez fight is a kind of a curiosity, because both fighters are popular with a lot of fans, but neither of them seems to have enough talent to win a major title in the light middleweight or middleweight divisions.

It may be that neither of them ever wins a title during their career, unless they suddenly start to make some dramatic improvements in the near future. Duddy, now 30, would seem to be about as good as he’ll ever be. He probably won’t be getting any more powerful or faster than he is right now. Duddy might be able to capture a title if he moves down in weight to the light middleweight division and gets put in with one of the weaker champions, but I still have my doubts that he can do this.

Chavez, 24, has a lot of time to improve. However, he looks to be regressing as a fighter instead improved from what I’ve seen of him. At 6’0”, Chavez is likely going to wind up as a super middleweight or even a light heavyweight by the time he’s finished filling out. The problem with Chavez is that he fights in close like his famous father Julio Cesar Chavez, and tends to take a lot of punishment. He leaves himself open for a lot of shots and doesn’t have really good hand speed or big power.