By Michael Collins: A hulking WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) overwhelmed a slender Andy Lee (28-2, 20 KO’s) on size alone on Saturday night in getting a 7th round TKO stoppage at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. The fight was halted after Chavez Jr. hurt Lee with a big shot along the ropes and the referee Lawrence Cole hastily jumped in and halted the fight a little too quickly in my book. The stoppage time was 2:21 of the round.
I guess it didn’t matter, because Lee was too skinny to hang with the huge looking Chavez Jr., who looked like a cruiserweight in there with a middleweight. Lee would have stood a better chance if he had some inside fighting skills, but he didn’t know what he was doing when he was crowded by Chavez Jr. Lee made the mistake of letting Chavez Jr. fight him along the ropes instead of getting out to the center of the ring. It was too much bravado on Lee’s part and it cost him the fight. I don’t know that he would have won anyway, because Chavez Jr. was just too big. It’s great that he can somehow dehydrate to make the 160 pound division, because it gives him a huge edge over his opponents, but they need to have rehydration weigh limits so that you don’t get one fighter out-weighing another on fight night.
With this win, Chavez Jr. will supposedly be facing WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez on September 15th. I’ll believe that when I see it. Martinez is a whole different kettle of fish compared to the upright, stork-like Lee. Martinez has got major power and if Chavez Jr. tries to bull him against the ropes, he’ll likely get his head taken off. Martinez is also a lot slicker than Lee, so it’s not going to be the same fight that we saw tonight. I see Chavez Jr. taking a terrible beating if he goes ahead and makes this fight. Chavez Jr. needs to somehow stay at this weight class as long as he can, because he won’t have any advantage at super middleweight, unless he is able to bloat up to over 200 pounds after he rehydrates.
In other action on the card:
Miguel Vazquez UD 10 Daniel Attah
Abraham Han KO 4 Joe Gomez
Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. TKO 1 Leopoldo Gonzalez
Tremaine Williams KO 3 Theo Johnson
Robert Marroquin TKO 2 Arturo Santiago
Adam Lopez UD 4 Raul Carillo