Benny Ricardo: Chavez Jr Will Offer His Chin To Martinez
In the great sport of boxing the thought “Son of a Champion should also be a Champion” is not always the case. The reason being is that there’s a mother involved. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr started his boxing career with the name and has proceeded to now carve out 46 wins without a loss with 32 coming by way of knockouts. He is now the WBC Middleweight Champion.
Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez was born in one of the poorest area of Buenos Aires, Argentina, a place called Avellaneda. Neither his father Hugo nor his mother Susana were boxers but they were fighters in living their lives. Martinez dreamed of being a professional soccer player and then a cyclist. Boxing was his third option, but he stuck to it and traveled far from Argentina, across the pond to Spain to develop his boxing tools and become a World Champion and a top-ten pound per pound fighter in the world.
Now the genes of a legendary Hall of Fame fighter meet the genes of a life fighting couple. On the day before the Mexican Independence day of September 16, at the Thomas and Mack Center there is going to be an all time brawl the likes of which you have not seen in a while.
Martinez is the most athletic fighter Chavez Jr. has ever faced. The speed of Martinez is going to allow him to hit Chavez and hit him often. The son of the legend inherited his father’s double cranium ability to take shots and keep coming in.
I announced Chavez Jr.’s last fight with Andy Lee. Time and time again I saw Lee turn over his punch and hit Chavez flush on the chin and head and it was like hitting Big Ben, neither time nor Chavez stopped for a second. After 6 rounds, Chavez Jr. was trailing Lee on the scorecards of all three judges by 56-58 scores.
Martinez has one of the best right hand jabs off his southpaw stance I have ever seen. He leans to the side as he throws it and has unbelievable leverage in doing so. This is the punch that set up the most wicked left hook I have ever witnessed in boxing when he dropped Paul Williams face first on the ring canvas.
Just like his father did with the late great puncher Edwin Rosario, Chavez Jr. realized Lee can’t hurt him and like his father paid the price to get inside and overwhelm Lee with his physical power. The Chavez Jr. power is not one punch punching power, instead, it’s a war of attrition surviving method that borders on fearless insanity.
I was taught very early in my boxing career that one ofthe most important attribute a fighter can have is his ability to absorb a punch. Muhammad Ali’s greatness was achieved with his hand speed and ability to take shots that allowed to fight in spectacular fashion. Ali’s method were all technically wrong, yet it worked for him because of his God given abilities including the iron chin.
Martinez fights with the same athletic style Ali and Roy Jones Jr. used to dominate their divisions. But like Ali and Jones Jr. age sets in and now the hands down style fighter is caught taking a picture. No longer is he a blur of an image, he is now a target that can be hit.
At 37, you wonder about Martinez taking a picture now. Matthew Macklin dropped Martinez in the seventh, but Martinez got up and dropped Macklin twice in the eleventh before the fight was stopped. Martinez is one of the great closers in the game of boxing, but his style requires an amazing physical condition for he must be moving all the time for the duration of the fight.
Likewise Chavez Jr.’s style of fighting barging in taking shots to land a shot also takes tremendous physical conditioning. Chavez Jr. will be shocked to find out how fast Martinez actually is, just like his father was shocked and bothered by the speed of Frankie Randall. Speed kills, but that’s why they build walls to absorb the shock of any speeding vehicle. Martinez is the speed and Chavez Jr. is the wall.
Both fighters have a tremendous disdain for each other. Martinez knowing that the WBC title he is fighting for is rightfully his. Martinez won the title by beating Kelly Pavlik, Chavez Jr. was given the chance to fight for the title when technicalities outside the ring took it away from Martinez. Chavez Jr. beat Sebastian Zbik for the title and became the first ever Mexican World Middleweight Champion.
Martinez now wants to take care of the technicality by putting a beating on Chavez Jr. Martinez told Chavez Sr., “Take a look at your son now because you won’t recognize him when I get done with him.”
The beating will be on and it will be size vs speed. Martinez never walks around weighing more than 165 pounds, Chavez will enter the ring weighing 180 plus pounds or two division higher than middleweight. Chavez Jr. is that rare individual that can shrink his body for the weigh in and grow back overnight. Yet the last time he fought in Las Vegas he was suspended for using a banned diuretic furosemide. His fight with Troy Rowland was declared a no contest and Chavez Jr. served a seven month suspension.
Physically Chavez will be the bigger, taller man yet Martinez will have the reach advantage 191 cm to 185 cm. Martinez will be the quicker fighter and quicker fighters can get tired. Chavez Jr will be the bigger, younger fighter and at then end of the fight he will still be the bigger and younger fighter. When I think of the unbeatable Martinez I think of his spectacular knockout of Paul Williams and his total destruction of Kelly Pavlik. When I think of the very beatable Martinez I think of the way Mexican body snatcher, Antonio Margarito destroyed him in 7 rounds.
Chavez Jr. he has never faced anybody with the tools that Martinez brings to the ring. To say this fight will be a cracker is right on. But on the eve of the Mexican Independence day the Mexican fans pouring into the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas to lend their support to the son of the legend, that atmosphere will propel Chavez Jr. to new heights.
But the best way to sum up this fight is to say that Chavez Jr. will offer his chin to Martinez for the chance to take Martinez’s body in exchange. If the chin survives the Mexican Independence Celebration is on and Argentina will be crying. If it doesn’t justice will have been served and Martinez will get back the title he never lost in the ring.
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