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Julio Cesar Chavez Jr’s long awaited world title opportunity finally came last night at Staples Center in Los Angeles and the son of one of Mexico’s greatest fighters was awarded a majority decision over WBC middleweight champion Sebastian Zbik.
Zbik started out strong, taking the fight to Chavez, backing up the younger man and landing effective combinations. Chavez was less busy than his foe but managed to score with hard right hands, taking advantage of the less mobile champion.
The middle frames saw the bigger, stronger Chavez begin to target the body of Zbik but the challenger was still getting outworked as the champion seemed to rarely miss as the two stood head to head.
Chavez and Zbik took turns controlling the action as the contest rolled into the later rounds but in the tenth and eleventh, Chavez’s body assault was the difference as Zbik was clearly getting hurt.
Zbik rallied in the final frame, scoring with good combinations but had his progress stifled once again by a strong effort by Chavez to the midsection.
In the end, the judges favored Chavez’s harder punches over Zbik’s much higher accuracy and workrate, with Chavez winning a majority decision of 114-114, 116-112 and 115-113.
The somewhat controversial win by Chavez, now 43-0-1 (30), could be grounds for a mandatory rematch, perhaps in the German homeland of Zbik, 30-1 (10).
The undercard saw light middle contender Vanes Martirosyan, 30-0 (19), halt veteran Saul Roman, 34-9 (29), in the seventh to capture the vacant WBC Silver crown and featherweight Miguel Angel Garcia, 26-0 (22), rubbed out Rafael Guzman, 28-3 (20), in the fourth for the NABF and NABO belts.
Women’s boxing legend Christy Martin, 49-6-3 (31), knocked down opponent Dakota Stone, 10-8-5 (2), in their rematch but was forced to retire in the sixth due to a broken hand during a fiery battle of 42 year fighters.
