There wasn’t any controversy during the WBC Middleweight Championship fight at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on Feb. 4, but there was plenty of it afterwards. Chavez Jr. defended his title by unanimous decision over Marco Antonio Rubio in a decent, but not overly exciting fight, by scores of 115-113, 116-112, and 118-110.

Chavez struggled to make the middleweight limit of 160 lbs., but he did by weighing in at 159.5 lbs. However he then put 22 lbs. back on overnight and reportedly entered the ring at 181 lbs. while Rubio, who weighed in 1t 159, came into the ring at 171 lbs. The 10-pound difference in their weights was quite noticeable as Chavez was the much bigger and stronger man.

The fight was pretty uneventful until the last two rounds when the two Mexicans decided to slug it out. Chavez’s face was marked up after the 12 rounder as Rubio landed a lot of short, inside shots. The controversy came in the press conference when Rubio’s promotion team accused Chavez of ducking out on the WBC’s mandatory urine test which must be done by both fighters.

Rubio’s team said Chavez flew out of the dressing room after the bout and didn’t leave a urine sample. Chavez was asked about it during the post-fight press conference, but didn’t answer the question. Rubio’s team claimed they also asked Jose Sulaiman, the WBC president, and he simply said that Chavez forgot to leave a sample.

After a fight against Troy Rowland in December 2009, Chavez was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for seven months because a diuretic known as furosemide was found in the boxer’s blood system. Rubio’s team said that a late sample is better than nothing and is demanding that Chavez leaves a sample since some illegal substances can be found in a person’s system up to six months later. Oswaldo Kuchle, who is Rubio’s promoter, said the WBC should force Chavez to follow the organization’s own rules.

With the win Chavez raised his record to 45-0-1, with 31 KOs while Rubio fell to 53-6-1, with 46 KOs. Both fighters threw a lot of punches, but neither of them landed any big shots and neither of them was hurt during the fight. Rubio was the busier of the two, and Chavez’s face proved he did some damage over 12 rounds, but there wasn’t enough power in the challenger’s shots to stagger the champion.

It was also reported after the fight that Chavez was charged with drinking and driving in Los Angeles two weeks before the bout and has a court date on March 16. Along with his struggle to make weight, these events have led many fans to accuse him of not being mature enough to be a world-class boxer. Many fans believe he’s just living off of his father’s name and will be beaten as soon as he faces a legitimate top-five opponent.

Up until now though, he’s unbeaten, but there are still a lot of questions regarding his skill and dedication. Chavez said he’ll stay at middleweight for the time being and fight Miguel Cotto, Sergio Martinez, or Antonio Margarito next. However, Cotto’s fighting Floyd Mayweather in May and he’s not a middleweight anyway and neither is Margarito. He’s been accused of hiding behind Sulaiman and the WBC and ducking Martinez, and it looks like Margarito could be his next test.

With a November 19 fight scheduled against Peter Manfredo Jr. on HBO and the fact his promoter Bob Arum was dead against fighting Ronald Hearns on Sept. 17, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to hear that WBC Middleweight Champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has pulled out of the Hearns bout.

Chavez reportedly cut his hand open on a ceiling fan a couple of weeks ago and received a couple of stitches to repair it. According to his camp, it hasn’t healed yet and he hasn’t been able to train properly in preparation for the fight which was to be held in Culiacan, Mexico.

Of course, Hearns’ promoter Lou DiBella isn’t buying it, especially after Chavez reportedly weighed in at 173lbs. during the 30-day preliminary weigh-in on Aug. 17. DiBella also said Chavez was recently sparring with Antonio Margarito, so something doesn’t quite add up.

The Hearns-Chavez bout has been plagued with problems since the start as there was a tug-of-war between Zanfer Promotions and Arum’s Top Rank, who both co-promote Chavez. Arum didn’t want the fight at all, while Zanfer were all for it.

DiBella said it was easy to see it coming, but Hearns is the victim here because he was training hard for the title shot. Many fans don’t believe Hearns deserves the shot, especially after losing to Felix Sturm in a bout for the WBA middleweight title in his last fight, but at least he’s fulfilling his commitments whereas Chavez is being unprofessional about the whole thing.

It’s also believed that Chavez doesn’t feel Hearns is in his league and is out of shape because he hasn’t trained seriously for him. In  addition, he’s also come in over weight in a few fights, but things were taken care of because of his famous name.

Chavez’s team said their fighter weighed about 173 lbs. and reports of being as heavy as 185 and faking an injury are nonsense. His strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza said he weighed 180 at the start of last week, but dropped seven pounds by the end of it and he shouldn’t have a problem getting down to the middleweight limit of 160.

In the end, Bob Arum basically got what he wanted, but said it didn’t have anything to do with him because the money for the bout was being put up by the local government in Mexico and Zanfer was involved in the promoting of the fight since he was too busy. Arum is recommending that Chavez heads over to the Philippines with trainer Freddie Roach and prepares for his fight against Manfredo Jr. in November.

It’s doubtful that Hearns will be offered another date with Chavez, but anything’s possible in boxing. He could be used down the road as a tune up or an “easy title defence” sometime down the road. Marco Antonio Rubio, who is the WBC mandatory challenger, is also waiting in line for a shot at Chavez and said the believes his fellow countryman isn’t in shape for a fight with Hearns and that’s why he pulled out.

Any serious boxing fan should immediately recognize the sir names Hearns and Chavez. These were made famous in the boxing world by former champions Thomas (Tommy) Hearns and Julio Cesar Chavez. They each won multiple world titles in several weight divisions and are worthy hall of famers, (Hearns will be eligible next year), with excellent knockout records.

They also have something else in common. They both have sons who are pro boxers, Ronald Hearns and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, who will be facing each other on Sept. 17^th in Chavez’s hometown of Culiacan, Mexico. Chavez is the current WBC Middleweight Champion after beating German Sebastian Zbik by majority decision back in June in one of the best fights of the year so far.

While the names signify a great matchup, a closer look at both fighters reveals this isn’t really as good as it sounds. The unbeaten Chavez is 25 years old and has already fought 44 times as a pro, with a record of 43-0-1, with 30 KO’s. He might not have been too impressive early on in his career, which began in 2003 when he was just 17, but he’s improved steadily over the years, culminating in his win over Zbik.

He’s also faced a few other decent fighters along the way, such as Billy Lyell, John Duddy, and Matt Vanda. But by and large his opponents have been pretty mediocre and it’s doubtful that he’d be a world champion at this stage of his career if he’d fought in any other era, especially his father’s.

Hearns on the other hand is already 32 years-old and has only fought 28 times. He owns a 26-2 record with 20 K)’s. But other than a failed shot at Felix Sturm’s WBA title in February, none of his opponents are household names…not even in their own households. He was lost by seventh round TKO to Sturm and lasted a lot longer than many experts thought he would.

Chavez may not be a worthy champion, but he’s improving and has been involved in some exciting fights. He’s not afraid to slug it out. Hearns seems to be stuck in neutral and should count his lucky stars that he’s getting a second shot at a world title, considering his skill level. Hearns is going to have to come up with the fight of his life to take Chavez and while it’s possible, it’s not likely.

Chavez and his team already seem to be looking past Hearns as they have a fight set up with Peter Manfredo Jr. on Nov. 19. His promoter Bob Arum didn’t want him to fight Hearns, but Chavez and his father pushed for it and eventually got it. However, it’s without Arum’s involvement and doesn’t count towards a fight on their promotional contract. The local Culiacan government ended up providing the funding for the bout.

Chavez will also have to do without Freddie Roach to train him for the fight because Arum told him the fight wouldn’t take place and the trainer then filled in his schedule with other commitments. It’s also been rumored the Mexican may have a hard time getting down to 160 lbs.

These are sure to be situations that give the Hearns’ camp a glimmer of hope. But I’m afraid when all is said and done, his father Tommy is going to be the only member of the family to wear a title belt around his waist.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., (43-0-1, 30 Kos) the son of the Mexican ring legend of the same name passed his first legitimate test on June 4 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Chavez took on unbeaten WBC Middleweight Champion Sebastian Zbik (30-1, 10 Kos) in a round-round slugfest and did just enough to walk away with the German’s belt in a majority decision when the judges’ scorecards of 114-114, 115-113, and 116-112 were announced.

It was a hell of a fight, actually one of the best of the year so far and a lot of the credit for this can go to Zbik who came to America to fight for his title. Too many European champions make the trip across the Atlantic Ocean and then don’t perform up to par. But this guy started throwing bombs right from the opening bell in his first fight outside of Europe. The only problem for Zbik is that his punches don’t carry much power, as witnessed by his record of 10 Kos.

Chavez gave as good as he got as he was digging into the former champion’s body all night long, especially with the left hook. Zbik concentrated on head shots and landed dozens of beauties, but nothing hard enough to rock Chavez. Zbik out landed Chavez by quite a wide margin at 391 to 256, but Chavez’s punches seemed to carry more weight. However, one wonders if Chavez would have survived the attack if Zbik had more power.

Chavez has been accused of quite a few things already in his career, such as being lazy and living off the name of his famous father, but he’s unbeaten and can never be accused of being boring. He’s already had 44 pro fights and is only 25 years old, that’s not really the mark of a lazy fighter.

He does need to work on his defense though and that will probably be trainer Freddie Roach’s focus before his next fight. The only downside to that for fans is that he might not be as exciting, but it’s for his own good. Zbik nailed him with some solid shots flush to the jaw far too easily. Roach might also have to decide on what weight division is best for Chavez.

He made the middleweight limit of 160 lbs. at the weigh in, but came into the ring at 180 lbs, which means he bypassed the light heavyweight division and was fighting at the weight of a cruiserweight. Zbik came into the ring at 165 lbs., giving Chavez a 15 lb. advantage. But Chavez has only one knockout in his last eight fights, so the heavier he gets the more power he seems to lose.

The 29-year-old Zbik was basically given the WBC belt after the organization stripped legitimate champion Sergio Martinez of it a few months ago and most of his opponents are unrecognizable to American fans. It’s hard to tell just how good Zbik and Chavez are until they both fight somebody else. It was a move up in class for both of them, but they might not be able to handle the elite fighters of the division. Chavez, especially, wouldn’t be able to afford to get hit with clean shots from the likes of Martinez, while Zbik showed he can take a punch pretty well.

This fight could have gone either way and Chavez basically won it by just one round. A rematch should be welcomed by anybody who witnessed the fight.