By Michael Collins: It isn’t Marco Antonio Rubio’s lack of height that may hurt him this Saturday night in challenging WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (44-0-1, 31 KO’s) for the title on HBO at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. It’s the weight advantage that Chavez Jr. will almost surely have going for him that will cause Rubio major headaches in this fight.
Rubio, 5’10”, isn’t that much shorter than the 6’0” Chavez Jr. but where the difference is for this is the weight. Chavez Jr. is a fighter that can take off incredible amounts of water weight before fights to get down to 160 and then he bloats up to as high as 185 to face guys that are just a little 160.
If you know anything about boxing then you’ll know that having a weight advantage of 20 to 25 pounds is a major plus. It’s unheard of in the lighter weights. You usually don’t see that kind of thing unless you’re looking at the heavyweight division with all the different sized heavyweights the division. Chavez Jr. is someone can take off a massive amount of water weight and then put it back on after he makes the 160 pound limit for his fights.
Coming in at anything over 180lbs is going to make it really tough for Rubio because he doesn’t have the frame to be taking hits from someone that much heavier than him. It’s not just one blow that will do him in here. It’s having a guy 20+ heavier pounding on you all night long like Chavez Jr. will be doing that will give Rubio problems. He’s also going to have to deal with Chavez’s much longer arms.
It seems painfully obvious that if Rubio is going to win he’s going to have to try and force a stoppage by putting the heat on Chavez Jr. immediately and look to take him out. I don’t even think Rubio can get Chavez Jr. to the later rounds because he probably last that long with the heavier Chavez Jr. pounding on him all night.