Gamer
01-10-2011, 12:25 AM
c/p By Lem Satterfield
Middleweight contender and WBC silver champion, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., will return to the ring on Jan. 29 against Ohio's Billy Lyell, at Estadio Banorte in Chavez Jr.'s home town of Culiacan, Mexico. Chavez has a goal of winning the green belt that is currently around the waist of Sergio Martinez, says Chavez's long-time matchmaker Sean Gibbons.
The fight with Lyell will mark the first time that trainer Freddie Roach, along with strength and conditioning coach, Alex Ariza, will travel to Mexico to train Chavez.
"Julio still is working with Freddie Roach, and this will be the first time that they will be training together with Alex Ariza in Mexico City," said Gibbons. "The fight with Lyell is going to be scheduled for 10 rounds, and it will be seen on Top Rank Live in the United States, and, of course, Fox Sports."
"The ultimate goal is to fight Martinez for the WBC title if we're successful. But you never want to jinx yourself talking about what's next or to look past what's directly in front of you. At the present moment, we've decided just to shoot for the WBC middleweight championship. If we're successful in that, then, say, Miguel Cotto comes out successfully in his next couple of fights, we'd still like to possibly fight Cotto."
With the way the title situation is playing out, Chavez might fight for the WBC title without having to face Martinez.
The sanctioning body is strongly considering making Martinez the "Champion Emeritus" at middleweight, which in turn would vacate the "regular" WBC title and create a situation where Chavez as the silver champion would face unbeaten interim-champion Sebastian Zbik for the vacant belt. Discussions are already taking place to match Chavez and Zbik. A date of March 26 has been mentioned by Chavez, but other sources point to April or the end of May for the Zbik clash.
Middleweight contender and WBC silver champion, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., will return to the ring on Jan. 29 against Ohio's Billy Lyell, at Estadio Banorte in Chavez Jr.'s home town of Culiacan, Mexico. Chavez has a goal of winning the green belt that is currently around the waist of Sergio Martinez, says Chavez's long-time matchmaker Sean Gibbons.
The fight with Lyell will mark the first time that trainer Freddie Roach, along with strength and conditioning coach, Alex Ariza, will travel to Mexico to train Chavez.
"Julio still is working with Freddie Roach, and this will be the first time that they will be training together with Alex Ariza in Mexico City," said Gibbons. "The fight with Lyell is going to be scheduled for 10 rounds, and it will be seen on Top Rank Live in the United States, and, of course, Fox Sports."
"The ultimate goal is to fight Martinez for the WBC title if we're successful. But you never want to jinx yourself talking about what's next or to look past what's directly in front of you. At the present moment, we've decided just to shoot for the WBC middleweight championship. If we're successful in that, then, say, Miguel Cotto comes out successfully in his next couple of fights, we'd still like to possibly fight Cotto."
With the way the title situation is playing out, Chavez might fight for the WBC title without having to face Martinez.
The sanctioning body is strongly considering making Martinez the "Champion Emeritus" at middleweight, which in turn would vacate the "regular" WBC title and create a situation where Chavez as the silver champion would face unbeaten interim-champion Sebastian Zbik for the vacant belt. Discussions are already taking place to match Chavez and Zbik. A date of March 26 has been mentioned by Chavez, but other sources point to April or the end of May for the Zbik clash.