Julio Cesar Chavez Jr may look to target Sakio Bika at 168 pounds

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr will be moving up to 168 pounds for his September 7 return against Brian Vera on HBO, and he may not be going back to middleweight. The former WBC titleholder seems to be leaning toward a run at super middleweight, and challenging for the WBC belt in that division.

"Let's see what the body tells us. If we feel that there is no problem with the weight, we may go back to middleweight. But if we feel we're good at this weight we could stay here and look for a fight with Bika, who is the champion of the World Boxing Council. With him it would be a more attractive fight, even more than it would be with Rubio."

Marco Antonio Rubio lost to Chavez Jr in February 2012 in San Antonio, but for no particularly good reason other than bias, the WBC recently ordered a Chavez-Rubio rematch for an interim middleweight title. I've yet to come across someone who actively wants to see that fight, and for all the world, it looks as though Chavez Jr just isn't going to be able to get back to 160. The fight with Vera was originally a 165-pound catchweight, bumped up after JCC looked heavy at his brother's fight recently.

If he does go up, then Bika (32-5-2, 21 KO) would be an interesting opponent, and that could be a good fight. But I've been saving this until right this moment, hoping to lull you and everyone else, yet not avoiding just saying it, even though it means the quote above is useless: Bika is a Golden Boy fighter. Chavez is a Top Rank fighter.

No fight.