By James Slater – New “regular” WBC middleweight champ Julio Cesar Chavez Junior was contemplating taking an optional defence of his belt on September 24th, but it now looks like the 25-year-old will do as promoter Bob Arum advised and go straight into his planned November date with Peter Manfredo. The word is, the fight, likely an exciting one, will go down on November 19th at the big Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas. The fight is now up on boxrec and fans are getting excited about the match-up..
Both guys have a crowd-pleasing style and the two can be relied upon to give the fans their money’s worth. Unbeaten at 43-0-1(30), Chavez Junior will naturally start as favourite to win. But 30-year-old former “Contender” Manfredo, 37-6(20) is hungry, massively so. Unbeaten in his last six and far more comfortable now that he’s settled into the 160-pound weight class, “The Pride Of Providence” had some financial difficulties that forced him to take a day job along with his boxing career. Manfredo knows the shot against Chavez will almost certainly be his last crack at a major title and he will be ready to make the most of it.
Manfredo is pretty much an open book: we know what he can do and what he cannot do. Chavez on the other hand, is still learning and possibly improving. The question is, has Manfredo taken this fight at the perfect time for him; before Chavez has had time to develop into as good a fighter as he is ever going to be?
Mnafredo has decent power, as does Chavez. Chavez has thus far displayed a reliable chin, whereas Manfredo has been halted twice as a pro. However, the two men who stopped Manfredo – Joe Calzaghe and Sakio Bika – were simply too big for him. It was the 2008 loss to Bika that convinced Manfredo he was not and never will be an elite super-middleweight. And is Chavez anywhere near the class of Calzaghe? Bika maybe, but “The Pride of Wales?” No way. The November fight is definitely a winnable one for Manfredo. As it is a winnable fight for Chavez Junior also.
Chavez will be made a slight favourite, as I’ve said, but to my mind this one is a pick ‘em fight. Also having the look of a tough distance fight, I’m leaning towards Chavez; largely because I feel he will wind up getting the benefit of the doubt from the judges if the fight is nip and tuck. This one will be close, it will be controversial and it will be exciting.