The most important thing is that he (hopefully) gets a decent payday, I think he was having financial problems. Shame, he seems like a decent guy.
Pretty much just depends on how well Jr can take Manfredo's power. Manfredo's not a big puncher, but he does probably hit the hardest at Middleweight amongst the opponents that Jr has faced so far. Manfredo is also the better boxer(by a small margin) of the two, in my opinion, neither guy is great in terms of boxing skill though. Both fighters are terrible defensively and are going to land on each other whenever they let their hands go. If the fight is close at all, obviously Jr will get the decision regardless.
Manfredo used to train under Freddy Roach at the wild card, if this fight's happening Freddy must be fairly confident about Chavez being able to do this. But if Manfredo connects half as much as Zbik, Chavez will not only get stopped, he might get retired. I expect Peter to take a leave of absence from his job and go into a full time training camp for the first time in a couple years.
Whenever the Chavez/Zbik fight is discussed people always tend to overlook Sebastian's ability to absorb punishment, Can't really think of many MW's who stand up to the type of assault Jr. Layed on Zbik's body. Can Manfredo withstand the same? (He has been stopped before)
I don't think Chavez hits as hard as Sakio Bika. Nor do I think Zbik would hold up being hit like that by some other MW's. Chavez hasn't stopped a MW yet in his career. Troy Rowland, John Duddy, and Billy Lyle all heard the final bell, they simply got outboxed. I think Bob is overlooking Peter due to the Eduard fight. What people don't realize is that fight was outdoors on the water front in Key West and the air temp was in the 50's. You could tell Manfredo was cold and tight, I also think that's why Edwin Rodriguez threw his shoulder out that night.
Excited about this fight, i hope it happens. Manfredo has been around a long time, and deserves another shot and a decent payday. Unless he is the victim of a bad stoppage ( calzhage ) , or bad judging , I predict Manfredo to win by UD or late stoppage.