The title of this entry reads like the biggest money fight outside of Pacquiao v Mayweather though it's not an entry about the two men facing off, well not directly anyway. Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is seen as Mexico's darling of boxing, he is a young, charismatic ginger haired kid who at just 21 years old holds a record of 37-0-1 (27) and is the current WBC Light Middleweight champion. Canelo is seen by some in the sport as the next big Pay Per View name and the guy that could help reinvigorate the fans.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr is seen as the complete opposite, to Canelo, despite similarities including an unbeaten record (43-0-1, 1NC (30)) a WBC title (Middleweight) and also being Mexican, he's largely disliked. Whilst Alvarez is seen as the next big thing, Chavez Jr is seen as a bit of a fraud, a fighter who is living on his father's great name in the sport and doing little to deserve his chances on HBO.
I have for a while, been a JCC Jr defender, feeling that he's taken a lot of stick from fans for being over-hyped despite being described as "useless" and "clueless" yet he's a funny one. JCC Jr certainly has entertaining fights, his fight with Sebastian Zbik was exciting and really fun to watch and at least beat a fighter in their division for his title. If pushed it would seem the fraud is Canelo.
I know some readers may now be fuming but lets just look at it fairly.
Canelo managed to get a vacant "world title fight" against Matthew Hatton, in a division that Hatton wasn't campaigning in, whilst Chavez had to beat reigning title holder Zbik. (1-0 Chavez, I'm sure you agree)
Chavez will be making his next defence against former world title challenger Ronald Hearns whilst Canelo will be facing former title challenger Alfonso Gomez. The difference is that Gomez challenged for the Welterweight title and will be challenging for the Light Middleweight title, Hearns lasted 7 rounds with Felix Sturm at Middleweight, the same division he will be challenging Chavez. (Another for Chavez)
An often said comment about Chavez is that he was lucky to beat Carlos Molina though this is the Molina who just gave Kermit Cintron a whooping and was unlucky to only get a draw with Erislandy Lara. More recently Canelo was lucky to beat Francisco Villanueva, a guy who was 5-17-2. In fact Canelo also struggled to beat Lightweight (yes, Lightweight) champion Miguel Vazquez in Miguel's debut (3-0 Chavez)
When you look at things a bit more than simple their name and physical traits it seems pretty obvious, that Chavez is a bit more of a real deal than "Canelo".
