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By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is reportedly in talks with WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler for a fight between Golovkin and former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (47-1-1, 32 KO’s) for July 12th, according to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports. Chavez Jr. has to get past his rematch against Brian Vera (23-7, 14 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas, USA. The fight between Chavez Jr. and Golovkin would be at the full 168 lb weight for the super middleweight division.

Golovkin will probably make a mess of Chavez Jr. if that fight is made. Chavez Jr. has an uncanny ability to take punishment, but Golovkin is too powerful for him to be taking head shots for 12 rounds without getting stopped in some fashion, whether it be from cuts or a clinical knockout.

With Chavez Jr., you can’t assume that he’ll win his fight this Saturday night against Vera, because he really struggled in their previous fight last year. Chavez Jr. did a good job of blocking Vera’s punches with his head, but he didn’t throw nearly enough shots to win the decision. It looked more like a typical gift decision than a legitimate win. Hopefully, Chavez Jr. can win this time without controversy so that there’s no issue like last September.

Arum is complaining that there’s less interest for the Chavez Jr-Vera rematch than there was when Chavez Jr. last fought in San Antonio in 2012 when he defended his WBC 160 lb title against Marco Antonio Rubio. A hulking Chavez Jr. somehow made weight for the fight at middleweight, and then rehydrated up and beat the much lighter-looking Rubio by a 12 round decision.

“Not nearly what he did in San Antonio before,” Arum said to Yahoo Sports in talking about the gate for this Saturday’s Chavez Jr-Vera II rematch.

If fans are less interested in seeing Chavez Jr. compared to before then it probably has to do with the fans seeing Chavez Jr. get beaten by Sergio Martinez in September 2012, followed by Chavez Jr’s year-long layoff after he was suspended for testing positive for marijuana from that fight. When Chavez Jr. did come back, he looked terrible in coming in heavy against Vera last September. Just off of all that, it’s not a surprise why there would be less interest from fans in seeing a Chavez Jr. vs. Vera Ii rematch.

If Chavez Jr. wants to bring his fans back to the level he had before then he’s going to need to make quick work of Vera on Saturday. This fight can’t be a close or controversial fight this time.