Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said former WBC middleweight titleholder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will face either England’s once-beaten Martin Murray at 160 pounds, or Brian Vera at 165 pounds on Aug. 3 in Mexico City.

Arum informed RingTV.com on Saturday that Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 knockouts) will make a decision some time over the weekend between fighting Murray (25-1-1, 11 KOs) or Vera (23-6, 14 KOs), and will then prepare for the bout with trainer Freddie Roach and assistant Alex Ariza.

“Alex has got to figure out whether he can get him down to 160,” said Arum. “The kid believes that he can make 160. The 165 pounds would be an interim step to go down to 160. In other words, he will fight at 165, and then he’ll fight his next fight at 160.”

Chavez, 27, was last in the ring for September’s unanimous decision loss to 160-pound champion Sergio Martinez, whom Chavez Jr. dropped in the 12th round.

Murray, 30, is coming off last month’s unanimous decision loss to Martinez, whom Murray floored in the eighth round.

Vera, 32, will be after his fifth consecutive win and his third straight stoppage if he faces Chavez, and is coming off a seventh-round knockout of Donatas Bondorovas in March.

Vera’s winning streak includes a majority decision over ex-titleholder Sergio Mora in August of 2012 that was followed by January’s 10th-round knockout of former beltholder Sergei Dzinziruk.

Vera’s last loss was in October of 2011 to Andy Lee, whom he had knocked out in the seventh round in March of 2008. Chavez stopped Lee in the seventh round in June of last year.

Photo by Chris Farina, Top Rank

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]