I have no idea how many of you looked at that fight, but my impression is that Chavez had better get a big payday soon, and he better make it count. He?s not horrible, but I don?t see that he is going to crack the upper reaches of the middleweight division or any division, despite the HBO crew trying to promote the idea that working with Freddie Roach ? who they are running a documentary about ? is doing wonders for him.
I think everyone knows by now that there aren?t many wonders to be found.
So what is the whole purpose of this thing? Well, from where I?m sitting, it?s got to be a fight that will do two things: score huge at the gate, and score huge with a niche audience on pay-per-view. I doubt Chavez Jr. is going to sell in a mainstream way right now.
The ?recognized? middleweight champion (in the words of HBO) is Sergio Martinez, and he certainly would be a target for Chavez to aim for, but is Martinez the kind of fighter that people will go crazy for in a pay-per-view? It seems if that was the case, the ?recognized? middleweight champion would have been in one or two of them by now.
Besides, he seems far too advanced for Chavez to be fighting right now, or perhaps at any time.
The ticket here, obviously, is Canelo Alvarez, who is defending his WBC light middleweight title this weekend against Kermit Cintron.
