By Rick Reeno

Promoter Lou DiBella has advised BoxingScene.com that he submitted a request to the WBC to hold an immediate purse bid for the mandatory fight between middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and mandatory challenger Sergio Martinez. For the moment, DiBella and Team Martinez are sitting back and waiting for the sanctioning body to set a date for the purse bids.

This past Thursday at the WBC's 49th annual convention at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, the sanctioning body ordered Chavez Jr. (44-0-1, 31KOs) to make an immediate defense against Martinez (48-2-2, 27KOs). Chavez is likely going to move forward with a fight on February 4th against the WBC's number one ranked contender, Marco Antonio Rubio.

"Right now it's a game of chicken. Chavez has an HBO date on February 4. We have an HBO date on March 17.  If Chavez fights in February, I'm going to submit a petition to have him stripped. We have an agreement with Matthew Macklin, but it depends on Chavez. If Chavez turns the fight down, then Martinez will defend the title against Macklin. But it's likely going to be Macklin - because Top Rank, [Top Rank CEO] Bob Arum, Freddie Roach, Chavez Sr., Omar Chavez, the other brothers, and even their cousins know one thing - Chavez Jr. is not going to fight Sergio Martinez on March 17," DiBella told BoxingScene.com.