For those who would care to watch Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. 44-0-1 (31 KO?s) of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, remain undefeated in his first title defense of a rather tainted WBC middleweight belt obtained by way of stripping legitimate champion Sergio ?Maravilla? Martinez in a set up of sorts to cash in on the Chavez name, his father Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. being a legendary fighter of epic proportions, Julio Jr. would make the best of the opportunity afforded him on Saturday night at the Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas by stopping challenger Peter Manfredo Jr. 37-7 (20 KO?s) of Providence, Rhode Island at 1:52 of round five. For the first time in his career after 46 professional fights, Julio Jr. would actually box from a distance, utilizing a jab and lateral movement to fight like the tall man he is, instead of leading with body shots and fighting in similar fashion to his shorter father who would wade in to opponents to demolish them one after the other. The end result would be that Chavez Jr. would for the most part keep Manfredo under control and at the end of his punches, although the challenger would have a brief moment of success here and there, to gain a 5th round TKO stoppage after the Mexican fighter would land a solid 1-2 combination which stunned his opponent, to then back Manfredo to the ropes with a volley of unanswered shots, most of which missed the mark, causing referee Laurence Cole to step in and waive the bout off. Stated a dejected Manfredo, ?he caught me with a good shot. What are you gonna do. They didn?t give me a chance. I?m not an HBO fighter.? In his finest performance to date over an opponent in Manfredo Jr. who has never gotten over the hump against upper echelon fighters, nevertheless entering the ring with both a decent resume and good experience fighting the likes of Joe Calzaghe, Jeff Lacy, Scott Pemberton, and Sakio Bika, to name a few, this was a solid win for Chavez Jr., who, under the tutelage of Freddie Roach, seems to finally be reaping the dividends of that relationship. ?This was my first time focusing on boxing, my first time focusing on defense, and I think it turned out pretty well,? Chavez said during his post-fight interview on HBO. Aside from the fact that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is representative of many things wrong with boxing in that he is the owner of a title he is undeserving of at this point, there will come a time that as a work in progress, he will finally have to answer his skeptics by not only facing higher level opposition to prove that he belongs among the elite in boxing, but that he belongs where he is at now, amongst the top ten middleweights in the world. Seemingly a far cry from a true champion, he is in no way ready to contend with the likes of Argentinian sensation Sergio Martinez, of for that matter fellow Mexican star Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez, who are both not only head and shoulders above Chavez Jr. skill wise, but are much more poised and polished in terms of ring generalship and how they go about their occupation. There is just no comparison. However, this would not deter young Julio from saying what would be expected of a young title holder when he stated, ?I want to fight the best. Martinez is a great champ, ?Canelo? would be a great fight for the Mexican public, but it all depends on what my promoter says. But I fear no one.? He may not fear anyone, but promoter Bob Arum surely does, knowing that there is little chance of Julio Jr. retaining his title at this stage of his career against either of the aforementioned fighters, not to mention a host of other fighters at middleweight starting with WBC mandatory challenger Marco Antonio Rubio, who considers Chavez Jr. to be nothing more than a product of pure publicity, always searching for the right opponent to maintain his status as champion. Rubio, who is chomping at the bit to get at Jr., stated, ?I think they?ve damaged Chavez by making him believe that he?s the champion of the world. Everyone knows that a circus act was pulled and there was a lot of drama to get him crowned. I?ve already said it, I?ll knock him out in eight rounds or less. You can run all you want, but sooner or later you will have to face me.? Again a solid performance by Julio over a journeyman type fighter, who, in his steady improvement, along with the complicity of the WBC and HBO to feature Chavez as a real champion, creates somewhat of an interest to see where this will all end up.
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