JULIO CESAR CHAVEZ Jr. W10 LUCIANO CUELLO

While Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is no world-beater, he is consistently involved in entertaining fights and Saturday’s bloody, gruelling junior middleweight 10-rounder against Luciano Cuello was certainly a thriller.

Chavez seems to have reached the limit of his abilities. He has some talent and he punches well to the body, but you couldn’t call him skilful and we now know that he isn’t the puncher that he seemed to be in his earlier blowout-type wins. The more experienced, sturdier professionals are able to withstand Chavez’s body blows.

Of course, Chavez gets hit a lot, too — what PPV commentator Al Bernstein delicately referred to as Chavez’s “defensive liabilities”.

Chavez has shown heart, however, and he did so again on Saturday night when he dug in and let his punches go in the hard-fought closing rounds, refusing to let Cuello force him into retreat. The last three rounds were about as fiercely contested as you could wish to see, with neither man wishing to give way,

I thought that Chavez made a bit of statement in the final nine minutes after having been booed for backing away in the middle rounds. He fought one of the best rounds he has ever fought in the eighth, when he unloaded barrages of punches at a juncture in the fight when Cuello was seeking to increase the pressure. Chavez couldn’t slow down Cuello to any great degree but he did check the Argentinean fighter’s forward march.

Worryingly, though, Cuello looked the stronger man at the end. I agreed with the commentary team that it was just as well that this was a 10-rounder. Cuello won the ninth round on two judges’ cards, and two judges gave him the 10th while the third judge had the 10th round even. Cuello was the fighter who was coming on in the last two rounds.

Chavez deservedly won, but he had a life-and-death struggle with a fighter who, while tough and capable, isn’t a boxer of any great distinction.

Cuello, undeterred by blood flowing from his nose, kept a tight guard and had success with the jab and quick bursts of punches, at times rattling three-punch combinations off of Chavez’s head. There would have been a real problem had Cuello been a harder hitter.

Chavez, nose bloodied and right eye battered, was obliged to tough it out and fight to the bitter end. The 98-92 score in Chavez’s favour by Mexican judge Monique Rendon was obviously overgenerous; the 96-94 and 96-95 scores by Los Angeles veteran Lou Filippo and Denver’s Stephen Blea respectively seemed a more accurate reflection of the fight. It was a well-earned win but not an overwhelming one.

Promoter Bob Arum talked of possible matches for Chavez against John Duddy, Oscar De La Hoya — should the Golden Boy decide to box again — or Manny Pacquiao, assuming Pacquiao beats Ricky Hatton on May 2. A Duddy fight would seem the likeliest, at least where the near future is concerned. Both fighters are with Arum’s Top Rank organisation.

I’m not sure how much longer Chavez can keep winning now that he is meeting a better-class of opponent, but I think he has reached a higher level than many might have expected.

To me, Chavez is like one of those club fighters from the 1950s who could be relied upon to put up a good effort but were never likely to reach any great heights, the difference being that as the son of a revered Mexican fighter and with a powerful promoter behind him he will have made himself a considerable amount of money before the show has run its course.