By Erwin Lastimosa
Sergio Martinez is a good fighter, very slick, and exciting to watch, but I feel people are seriously overrating him off of his spectacular Knockout of the Year against Paul Williams and decision win over Kelly Pavlik. Sergio’s promoter Lou DiBella is pushing for a Manny Pacquiao showdown with Martinez and Sergio himself wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr (I doubt Floyd will fight him).
I feel Kelly Pavlik was one dimensional and a basic fighter who doesn’t really move much and comes with the predictable punch arsenal of a one-two combo, Bernard Hopkins already exposed him. Let’s also realize that Martinez is a clumsy fighter, he is reckless and for a guy people are claiming as slick he has been knocked down and hit a lot in his fights.
Sergio Martinez has a few bandwagon fans hopping on, mainly fans who dislike Manny Pacquiao and are demanding Manny Pacquiao fight him at 154 or 160 which is absurd, Manny can’t even make 150 pounds, he said 150 was too big for him so let that freakshow go already.
I think Martinez needs to fight Paul Williams in a rubbermatch to prove to the world that his win over P-Will wasn’t just a lucky wild looping punch with his eyes closed.
There first fight was very competitive and I had Paul Williams winning 115-113 against Martinez. I really believe Paul’s mind wasn’t focused coming into the rematch with Sergio and that did him in early. Williams was more focused on landing a big money fight with Manny Pacquiao at 147-pounds it was all he ever talked about during pre-fight interviews. I think if Williams would have won the fight with Martinez by decision he would have been fighting Manny Pacquiao at 147-pounds instead of Shane Mosley because Freddie Roach and Bob Arum showed major interest in that match-up, but only at welterweight no higher.
Williams made the mistake of taking his opponent lightly and paid for it with a knockout loss.
If nobody else is lined up for Sergio Martinez to fight, HBO should try and make a rubbermatch between Williams and Martinez to settle the score and prove his win wasn’t a fluke or put Sergio in against that slick undefeated Russian middleweight Dmitry Pirog who knocked out Danny Jacobs. Pirog would be a worthy opponent to test Martinez and see if he really is as great as people are saying.
*Please refrain from leaving any Racist, Profane or Derogatory comments*
Got an Opinion? Submit Your Articles and Press Releases to be posted on NowBoxing.com
JOIN the NOW BOXING FORUM to discuss this and other boxing news topics (membership is FREE)
Erwin Lastimosa is a long time boxing fan and enjoys boxing discussion with his peers. Some of his favorite fighters are Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, Muhammad Ali, Flash Elorde, Mike Tyson and Manny Pacquiao.