Marco Antonio Rubio's team has filed the official protest they promised with the WBC, claiming that the sanctioning body broke their own rules repeatedly, and demanding that the bout be annulled. Chavez defeated Rubio via decision on February 4 in San Antonio.

Jake Donovan at BoxingScene.com reports that the Rubio camp has two major concerns:

1. They speculate that the WBC never bothered to do their safety check weigh-ins on Chavez. The 30-day weigh-in would have had Chavez at no more than 176 pounds by WBC rules. When Chavez was arrested for a DWI in California two weeks before the fight, he was listed at 175. So either he lost a pound in two weeks and then basically crashed down (which might have happened, to be fair), or the WBC never checked. The Rubio camp seems to feel they never checked -- which is also a reasonable speculation. This part will be almost impossible to prove, since why wouldn't they just lie if they didn't do it, but they're saying it anyway.
   
2. The lack of post-fight drug testing. Texas, because it's a commission run by the criminally ignorant, does not require post-fight drug testing. It's 2012, and this is a commission hosting major fights, not requiring even the bullshit urinalysis that any dummy who has a shred of a clue what he's doing can cheat and beat. The WBC, however, does require post-fight drug testing for title fights. All of them. Except this one, apparently. The WBC blamed Texas, and Texas blamed themselves, but nobody's really buying any of it.

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Last Saturday night's HBO boxing double-header drew a strong gate in San Antonio, largely thanks to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in the main event against Marco Antonio Rubio, but also probably aided a bit by Nonito Donaire facing Wilfredo Vazquez Jr in the televised co-feature as well.

Steve Kim reports that 15,664 tickets were sold at the Alamodome, with 885 comps, totaling a gate of $1,245,305. For a non-Vegas fight, this is an impressive gate, and the ticket sales are obviously very strong. Keep in mind, too, that San Antonio is a basketball-crazy city, and the Spurs were at home that night against one of the NBA's best teams, the Oklahoma City Thunder and star Kevin Durant.

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The WBC is making Sergio Martinez the mandatory for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr's WBC middleweight title. The huge grain of salt that needs to be taken with this story is the fact that the WBC has done this before.

At their convention at the end of December, they agreed to make Sergio Martinez the mandatory challenger for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, but then they backed out of it in a bad way. Usually, the challenger is given some kind of walk-away money so that the titleholder can take on another fighter.

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According to Sal Rodriguez, 19 million viewers tuned in in Mexico to catch Julio Cesar Chavez's win on Saturday night over Marco Antonio Rubio.

This is, obviously a fantastic number. It's not quite on the level of the record-setting Pacquiao vs Marquez number in November (33 million), but then what is?

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The Texas athletic commission is attempting to take all the blame for not administering any post-fight drug tests following Saturday's fight between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Marco Antonio Rubio in San Antonio.

From Gabriel Montoya of MaxBoxing:

According to an official statement given to me by Ms. Stanford, Texas simply dropped the ball.

"The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation did not book the drug testing laboratory for the Top Rank event on February 4, 2012," the statement read. "Specimens were taken from Lowry and Martirosyan but in the absence of the independent testing laboratory the integrity of the samples could not be assured and they were destroyed. No further samples were taken. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation regrets this oversight and is addressing the procedure going forward."

The full article is a must-read, as Montoya did an excellent job digging into this story, and coming out with no real answers, but a lot of information.

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Of the many issues in last Saturday's WBC middleweight title fight between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Marco Antonio Rubio, the use of open scoring was one that raised a lot of eyebrows. The practice is endorsed by the WBC and used in many countries for their title fights, but is not approved by the Association of Boxing Commissions, and thus is not used in the United States.

But Chavez vs Rubio did feature open scoring, as the corners were told after the 4th and 8th rounds what the judges' scorecards were at the time. Usually, the scores are also announced to the audience, but that was not the case on Saturday.

WBC supervisor Alberto Leon spoke to BoxingScene.com's Jake Donovan about what went down:

"The Texas Commission approved the WBC’s request to use open scoring on a limited basis only for the benefit of the corners," informed WBC Supervisor Alberto Leon. "In fact, the (local) commission itself conducted the procedure that was used."

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After dispatching Marco Antonio Rubio with another uninspiring performance, Julio Cesar Chavez Junior is looking forward to his next fight on June 16th. This would be the weekend after the Pacquiao-Bradley PPV, and presumably the replay will air before this fight.

Even though he had issues making the middleweight limit, it seems that his options are still focused on current middleweights and light middleweights. Junior spoke with Salvador Rodriguez & Ernesto Castellanos of notifight.com and Boxing Scene about his weight issues and potential opponents.

"These things happen [with the weight]. You learn from your mistakes and this will not happen again. I feel very strong in this division and I want to make history. I'm going to rest, analyze the fight and review our mistakes. I liked the way that I was able to avoid the straight right from Rubio, which is the most dangerous thing he has, but I can still get better and we will show you the ring and not just talk about it," Chavez said.

"There is talk of a fight with Andy Lee, talk of facing [Antonio] Margarito, talk of facing [Sergio] Martinez, who everyone wants to see me fight because they consider him the best in the world. Honestly, I do not shy away from anyone. If they pay me enough, I'll fight him. If I would have fought [Martinez] like I did against Rubio, he would have won the fight, but I will prepare much better for that fight. I know how to beat him."

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The World Boxing Council (WBC) is blaming the Texas commission for failing to administer post-fight drug tests following Julio Cesar Chavez Jr's Saturday win over Marco Antonio Rubio, and have told Rubio's team to take their protest and complaints to Texas, not to the WBC.

"We are not responsible for that review. If a drug test was not performed, that is something that always corresponds to the local commissions - which in this case was the responsibility of the Texas commission and not the World Boxing Council. The WBC can not get involved in the internal affairs of the commissions. It is up to Texas to respond to those claims."

Rubio's promoter says the fighter told him in the ninth round it was like he was fighting a heavyweight, but frankly it wasn't far off from that -- Chavez weighed 181 pounds on the HBO unofficial scales prior to the fight, and that was about what he was at in the ring. He was a big guy, 10 pounds heavier than Rubio's HBO weigh-in on the night. He's probably the biggest guy Rubio's ever fought in terms of weight on the night, and Chavez was using that weight to muscle and bully Rubio.

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Late last night we talked about Marco Antonio Rubio throwing a PEDs accusation at Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, and I said then that I thought it was reckless and kind of stupid, since his claims of Chavez's undying stamina were unfounded, and in a way I still believe in that (the claim seems unfounded, as Chavez clearly tired in the fight and said as much after), but this does change things a bit, and by a bit, I mean a whole hell of a lot.

Rubio says there were no drug tests for the fight, and he's going to file a complaint. And if there were no drug tests for the fight, he should file a complaint, and yes, something stinks here.

As Jake Donovan outlines in the official WBC rules, anti-doping tests are required for WBC title fights:

c) Antidoping Test Required. The anti-doping tests are mandatory for every world title or elimination bout. When a site for a title bout has no anti-doping facilities, a nearby city will be used. The WBC may print a form setting forth the anti-doping tests and procedures and attach it to registered contracts of champions and challengers. An official WBC laboratory may also be established by the WBC. Both champion and challenger shall adhere to these procedures and policies, and mandatory drug testing will be performed pursuant to the WBC Rules and Regulations herein.

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It was the first truly busy weekend of the year, and it was a pretty good one overall with a lot of telling fights, some questions raised, and maybe even a couple actually answered.

San Antonio, Texas

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr UD-12 Marco Antonio Rubio: I said at one point that the fight appeared to be drowning in Ambien but fighting to stay away. I didn't mean that to say it was a terrible fight or anything -- it was doing sort of what was expected, but slower and without the oomph. The last two rounds were very good, and Chavez kept his undefeated record and his WBC title belt. After the fight, Rubio unfortunately threw a PEDs accusation toward Chavez, but I think it's pure bunk even more than just sour grapes, since Chavez freely admitted he was out of shape and it bothered him. [ Chavez vs Rubio Recap ]

Nonito Donaire SD-12 Wilfredo Vazquez Jr: It's certainly not that Donaire was perfect in this fight, but the split decision verdict was shocking. Judge Ruben Garcia has some splainin' to do with his 115-112 Vazquez card. Donaire injured his left hand early in the fight, and word going around the gossips after was that there was a double fracture. [ Donaire vs Vazquez Recap ]

Vanes Martirosyan TKO-3 Troy Lowry: I've had my pretty hate-filled say about this sham of a fight twice already, so I won't go into it again. [ Undercard Recap / Video Highlights ]

Wale Omotoso TKO-6 Nestor Rosas: Rosas has fought once in six years, so this was a true step back for Omotoso from his last fight against the credible Lanardo Tyner. It wasn't particularly impressive, but Rosas took a good shot and had to be thankfully pulled out by the referee when it became totally pointless.

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