Sergio Martinez and the men around him know that if Martinez would have been better at speaking English (not that you can’t fix that), he would not be flying under the radar. Martinez, winning a fourth straight fight before the judges need to have their say, is the 3rd pound-4-pound fighter in the world right now, not exactly an unknown. Still, it seems his time for topping the rankings is running out.
At age 37, Maravilla is a physical wonder. Conditioning like no other, he seems to get better as the rounds change and reach double digits. Like in the Barker fight, Martinez had a rough time early on. He even got knocked down in the fifth after a nice combination from Macklin. It just made him better, just like Barker made him better after causing Martinez’ nose to bleed.
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His ability to fight from the outside, delivering punishment and wearing down his opponents came through once again. Macklin was knocked down twice in the 11th round, with the corner stopping it shortly afterwards. Martinez, at 49-2-2, is running out of opponents to fight.
He wanted the WBC to force Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to take him on. JCC is the WBC middleweight champion, Martinez the WBC diamond champion. Big difference. Martniez said he wants the belt no more after not getting a fight against the undefeated Mexican. After knowing he wasn’t getting a Pacquiao or Mayweather fight, he went for Macklin. A good fighter, but far from the big name, that brings big money with it, Martinez is looking for. At 37, excellent condition or not, time is running out.
Martinez, however, doesn’t seem to be in a hurry – I’ll keep waiting for those fights. I’m still a young man. I am No. 1, but I want that belt back. I won it inside the ring, and they took it from me.
Lou DiBella is the man responsible of getting Martinez the big fight he wants. I don’t know what Mayweather is thinking about fighting a Middleweight, willing to go down to the 150’s in order to make the fight happen. DiBella says it defenitley can happen.
I thought it was a terrific performance and I hope he gets the big fight he deserves. That is my job, to get it for him. He wants what they promised – a shot at the guy who is not really champion (Chaves Jr). He wants his belt back. And, of course, he wants Mayweather.
We’ll handicap it for Mayweather. Sergio will come down to ’54 or ’53 or ’52 or ’51 or ’50. 80-20 and we’ll go down to 150 pounds. If Floyd doesn’t want to do that, there’s not much more we can do. Martinez is Roy Jones in his prime. He’s a Mayweather-level guy. The reason they’re running from him is because he’s that good.
Martinez has the option of going up to the Super Middleweight division. It’s not loaded with superstars, but it is deeper than where he’s at right now. A fight between Andre Ward, another guy looking for wider recognition, could be an interesting option. Martinez, at 37, simply doesn’t want to take the risk of fighting bigger guys. Even if it means more money, and the dream of some mega fight with the biggest name in the business isn’t really happening at the moment.