Middleweight ace Sergio Martinez (47-2-2, 26KOs), who defends his WBC diamond title against England’s Darren Barker (23-0, 14KOs) in October, has once again called out welterweight stars Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Perhaps not surprisingly, neither Pacquiao or Mayweather have shown much interest in his repeated challenges
For both Martinez is simply too big and too much of a risk when there are plenty of other opponents out there who are equally well known.
While he’s open to having welterweights climb up in order to fight him however, Martinez apparently isn’t willing to do the same to secure potentially bigger fights at super middleweight.
Martinez’s trainer Pablo Sarmiento told Boxingscene’s Rick Reeno recently that his fighter isn’t willing to climb up to super middleweight, and that he’s just a blown-up welterweight.
Martinez though last fought at welterweight in 2001.
For some perspective at that time Pacquaio was fighting at super bantamweight (122lbs) while Mayweather was fighting at super featherweight (130lbs).
Both have overcome size disadvantages and worked to become the biggest stars in boxing today. If Martinez wants to become the kind of draw that will have opponents at his own weight lining up to fight him instead of avoiding him at all costs, moving to super middleweight seems the most obvious way for him to do it.
Because despite repeatedly and incessantly calling out Pacquiao and Mayweather over the last few months, Martinez isn’t going to get near either of them.
Pacquiao only has a handful of fights left. His sole venture north of welterweight proved more difficult than he would have liked, even against a walking target like Antonio Margarito.
Martinez doesn’t bring big money to the table, and hasn’t even made the light middleweight limit for close to two years.
Floyd Mayweather handled the climb to light middleweight more easily due to his bigger frame, but again hasn’t fought there since, and probably for good reason.
Even if Mayweather was open to fighting Martinez, the practicality of putting together a fight potentially presents other obstacles.
Mayweather will make enough from the pay per view sales alone against Victor Ortiz, boosted by the fact that Saul Alvarez shares the bill, that he won’t need to fight again for another year or so if he doesn’t want to.
In the recent build up to his forthcoming scrap Floyd has mentioned fighting ten times before he retires and maintains that he is back on the horse for good after his year off prior to Ortiz.
For the time being that will have to remain to be seen, but if his recent pattern of activity is anything to go by it could be a year at least before we see him back in the ring after September 17th.
Martinez is 36 already, and by the time Mayweather might even be ready to fight anyone, he could be close to 38. There isn’t any guarantee that either he won’t have slowed down or even retired by then.
It’s also highly unlikely that he would be anyone’s first choice of opponent after an extended layoff.
Gord Lambrianu, Pitt: “Martinez should fight the super six winner even if its at a catchweight, he’s only a couple inches shorter than Ward and Froch”
