Dan Rafael of espn.com is reporting that WBC Middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez will defend his crown against Andy Lee June 16th in El Paso,Texas.
Contracts are not signed yet, but both sides said they are confident the deal will be finalized. Adding intrigue to the fight is that Chavez promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank and Lou DiBella, Lee’s promoter, are also working on a deal under which the winner of Chavez-Lee would challenge lineal middleweight champion Sergio Martinez — who is promoted by DiBella — in September.
“The Chavez-Lee fight is done between me and Bob. We’ve agreed to everything and we are putting everything to paper,” DiBella told ESPN.com. “And now we’re working on the contract for the winner to face Martinez. Arum and I have had substantive conversations and I’m confident we will get that done in short order too.”
Arum is on vacation, but Top Rank president Todd duBoef tweeted, “Andy Lee set for June 16 against Chavez Jr. in El Paso at Sun Bowl.”
“We have agreed in principle to the terms but we need to see a contract. But I’m optimistic,” Billy Keane, Chavez’s manager said. “I’m hoping that a contract will come that will reflect the terms we verbally agreed on.”
“I think it’s a very exciting and hard fight,” said Steward, who once trained the great Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. for three consecutive junior welterweight world title fights in 1994. “I think it will be a very tough fight. Chavez has developed into a real fighter. He’s become a serious fighter. He has very high energy in the ring. He cuts off the ring very well and smothers you. He gets inside and works the body like his daddy did. Him and Andy, they’re both big guys for middleweights, they’re both good punchers and they both get hit, which makes it a good fight.”
Said DiBella, “These are two long, lean middleweights, two big guys. Chavez is improving and is big and strong and will have the home-field advantage in El Paso. We might as well be going to Mexico. But Andy is a lefty, he’s strong and he can box. Andy Lee will be the best guy Chavez has ever fought.”
“I’ve taken my swipes at the kid, so I’m giving the kid props for taking the fight. That’s the kind of fight a champion takes,” DiBella said. “It also says to me he is serious about Martinez if he wins because he’s taking on a lefty, and I don’t think he’d be doing that if he didn’t think he’d fight Martinez if he won. This is a fight that Andy has been waiting for. He was p—– that he didn’t get Martinez in March, so he is thrilled with this opportunity. He knows it is the opportunity of a lifetime. HBO got themselves a good fight here.”
“I feel very good about it,” he said. “I know it’s not the ideal situation for us because everything is against Andy, but I have the confidence that he has the ability to score a knockout. We know what we’re going up against with the whole situation. But this is the type of opportunity we can’t pass up.”
“I’m actually looking forward to it,” he said from the Kronk Gym in Detroit. “I like having that bunker mentality when everything is against you. We’re gonna train hard and Emanuel will have the right plan and we will go in there and get that belt. It’s my turn. I’ve waited a long time and it’s been a long journey. The time is right for me physically and mentally and I am just glad it’s here.
“I never thought I would get this fight. But I spoke to Lou and he said the fight’s a go, so it’s very hard to contain my excitement. I don’t even know what I’m getting paid yet and I don’t even care. I’m fighting a champion and I will take that belt.”
“That is 100 percent the fight Julio wants subject to a reasonable deal,” Keane said of a pay-per-view fight with Martinez later in the year. “All we’re looking for is a reasonable deal. We’re not looking to hold anyone for ransom, just to be treated fair and reasonably.
“It certainly doesn’t hurt to have Julio have a southpaw look and a southpaw training but their styles are so drastically different that I don’t think Andy Lee is any great preparation for Sergio Martinez. But it doesn’t hurt to get that southpaw look.”
“We wanted to fight Sergio for a long time and Andy got tired of being on his undercards, but we always wanted Martinez,” Steward said. “Now we can get him by beating Chavez.”
“I can beat up Chavez and it will make me a star and then I can beat Martinez and that will make me a superstar,” Lee said. “It’s very exciting to be two fights away from that. This will be a vindication of my lifetime of work. I’ve been in the gym already today. I know what’s ahead of me. I know there is hard work to do. I’m ready for it.”
Photo by Chris Farina /Top Rank
