The unsettled pound-for-pound debate began about two years ago.
At this rate, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. might never resolve the issue in the ring. Even if the Filipino superstar and the unbeaten five-division champion from Las Vegas eventually decide to square off, Sergio Martinez might relegate the winner of a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight to the No. 2 spot on pound-for-pound lists.
Mayweather and Pacquiao supporters still have valid arguments for both boxers, but Martinez?s magnificent ascent to stardom over the last year clearly makes the Argentinean southpaw worthy of serious consideration for the top spot.
In the last 11 months, Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KOs) decisively defeated then-middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in a 12-round fight, scored the most sensational knockout of 2010 in his rematch against Paul Williams and impressively dismantled the previously unbeaten Sergiy Dzinziruk.
His eighth-round technical knockout of Ukraine?s Dzinziruk on Saturday night in Mashantucket, Conn., defied expectations because Dzinziruk is a smart, defensive-minded southpaw who hadn?t come close to losing in his first 37 professional fights. Dzinziruk, a 1996 Olympian, also hadn?t been knocked down as a professional or as an amateur.
Martinez knocked down the taller, technically skilled Dzinziruk five times ? three times in the eighth round ? before referee Arthur Mercante Jr. called a halt to the middleweight title fight at Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Though still impressive due to his usual size disadvantage, Pacquiao pummeled mostly older, slower opponents during his rise to fame and fortune. The embattled Mayweather might as well be retired, until we hear otherwise.
Meanwhile, Martinez, 36, is busy dominating top opposition: all in their physical primes, all younger than him. He said after defeating Dzinziruk that it?s his “dream” to become the mythical pound-for-pound champion, and that he wants to fight Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KOs) and/or Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs).
It?s unreasonable to expect Pacquiao, who stands 5 feet 6, to continue facing larger, dangerous men, especially a 5-10 middleweight who knocked out the 6-2 Williams with one punch. Mayweather?s not really a junior middleweight, either, much less a middleweight.
It?s much more likely we?ll see Pacquiao-Mayweather before Martinez gets a shot at either of them. He?ll have to settle for figuratively fighting them for the top spot on pound-for-pound lists.
Unlike this time a year ago, it?s no longer a two-man competition.
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