As Mexico looks for the next generation of boxing super stars, its best active fighter Juan Manuel Marquez (51-5-1, 37 KOs) believes the future is now for rising Aztec figures Julio Cesar Chavez Junior and Saul Alvarez.
Speaking from his international pulpit on ESPN Deportes Golpe a Golpe, Marquez expressed the need for Mexico’s next generation of potential stars to step up their competition - now.
“He [Chavez Junior] has the ability to be a world champion,” announced Marquez. “But, it is time they put him in with a name fighter and a fighter who will show us what he is made of.”One of the main criticisms directed at the twenty-four year old Chavez (41-0-1, 30 KOs) is the poor quality of his opposition and the need for his promotional company, Top Rank, to match him with a legitimate top ten fighter.
Marquez’s comments come on the heels of an announcement that Chavez will fight Alfonso Gomez (22-4-2, 11) on December 4 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. As an opponent, Gomez will do little to hush Chavez’s critics, as he is an average word-class fighter at best and will be moving up to middleweight from welterweight for the fight.
Twenty-year old Saul Alvarez (34-0-1, 26 KOs), has not felt the critics’ stings to the degree Chavez Junior has due to his young age, but Marquez feels “Canelo” can improve the level of his competition and challenge some of boxing’s best names in the near future.
“It is time to put him in with a name figher,” said Marquez. “He is about one or two years from being able to compete with Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, or Shane Mosley,”
Alvarez is also scheduled to fight on December 4, but in Cancun, Mexico against an undetermined opponent.
Source: examiner.com
