After weighing in at 158 on Friday, then eating a meal that included a steak and a slice of cheesecake, Martinez rehydrated only six more pounds.
But that shows the problem Martinez faces in trying to land a big fight. He’s still too big to fight a guy like Manny Pacquiao, who has never weighed more than 145 3/4 in a match, but he’s not nearly big enough to take on light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins, who has said he’d agree to a bout at 170 to face Martinez next year.
Martinez walks around in the mid-160s when he is not training. If he fought Hopkins at 170, Hopkins would rehydrate to well over 180 and have a significant weight advantage on the night of the fight.
While Mayweather and Pacquiao proved in their last two outings that weight advantages don’t by themselves determine the outcome of a fight, it has a big impact when the fights are more evenly matched. Mayweather was far more skilled than Ortiz, who had an unofficial 164-150 edge in weight when they fought Sept. 17. But Hopkins and Martinez are far closer in terms of skill, so if Hopkins had a 15- to 18-pound weight advantage when the bell rang, it would be far more significant.
That leaves Martinez, who was less-than-stellar in stopping Barker in the 11th round, sitting on top of what has long been one of boxing’s most prestigious divisions with no logical next opponent.
[Related: Martinez biggest winner of Weekend Review ]
For some inexplicable reason, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum inserted himself into Martinez?s business last week and discussed him at length before the fight, repeatedly suggesting that the Lou DiBella-promoted Argentinean should fight unknown Kazakh Gennady Golovkin, the World Boxing Association middleweight champion.
Golovkin, a silver medalist in the 2004 Olympics, is as anonymous in the U.S. as any 21-0 fighter with 18 knockouts and a world title belt could be. If someone had suggested a star fighter in Arum?s stable meet an unknown such as Golovkin, Arum would have gone apoplectic.
Clearly, Arum had some sort of agenda to continually discuss the way Martinez was promoted and who he should fight. Perhaps he’s about to sign Golovkin, though he denied it Friday when asked. Still, his point about a Martinez bout with Golovkin is evidence that Martinez?s dream of landing a big championship fight isn’t going to happen any time soon.
Martinez would probably be best served by dropping a division and fighting as a super welterweight, but even there, he’d find a hard time landing significant matches. Arum said he would not make a match between the Top Rank-promoted Antonio Margarito and Martinez if Martinez and DiBella insisted upon a 50-50 purse split.
Margarito fights Miguel Cotto for the WBA super welterweight title Dec. 3 in New York. Cotto has shown no interest in a bout and while Margarito has, Arum doesn’t seem interested.
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez holds the WBC title, but Golden Boy wouldn’t put its biggest drawing card near Martinez. To show you the way Golden Boy is thinking, it’s putting Alvarez in with faded veteran Kermit Cintron, who is 3-4 in his last seven fights.
Martinez is an engaging guy and entertaining fighter, but in the current boxing landscape, that’s not always enough to land a big match.
Hopefully, it comes, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were Martinez.
? I wasn’t particularly impressed by Martinez?s performance against Barker and will drop him on my pound-for-pound list when the voting is conducted later this month for the next Yahoo! Sports rankings. In September, I had Martinez third, behind only Mayweather and Pacquiao, but in October, I’ll drop him at least two slots, behind Nonito Donaire and Andre Ward, and perhaps farther.
? I’ve watched the replay of the right hook that knocked Barker out dozens of times and still have trouble believing it was that powerful of a shot. I think it might have been a shot to the temple a few seconds earlier that did Barker in.
? Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward, working the HBO broadcast, seemed to have some questions about the punch, as well. When Barker went down from the right hand that he seemed to deflect with his glove, Steward said, “That’s amazing. It seemed like it was partially blocked.” Later, Steward said, “Oh, he blocked the punches and still went down.”
? Speaking of Steward, Cotto announced on his website Tuesday that Steward won’t train him for his bout with Margarito. Steward will be preparing heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko for a bout with Jean-Marc Mormeck. Cotto said he’d hired Cuban Pedro Luis Diaz Benitez to train him.
? Sven Ottke appears on the ballot for the International Boxing Hall of Fame for the first time. And this may be the first time in the Hall’s history that an unbeaten champion who was 22-0 in world title fights gets zero votes. Ottke fought some good opposition, including Glen Johnson, but gets little respect and has next-to-no chance of making it.
? I no longer have a vote in the Hall of Fame balloting because I’m not a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. If I were voting, I’d vote for Thomas Hearns, Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson, Dariusz Michalczewski, Naseem Hamed, Hilario Zapata and Yoko Gushiken.
Since it appears as though Bob Arum has been lining up fighters for Manny Pacquiao for next year in advance of his next scheduled fight Nov. 12, how serious can Arum and Pacquiao be about making a fight with Mayweather? Public perception is that Mayweather is avoiding a fight with Pacquiao, but if Mayweather’s next opponent is still open and Pacquiao’s is, does that really make sense?
Summit D.
Fresno, Calif.
It’s a great question, Summit, and there is no correct answer. Here is what I think, and I emphasize ?think.? I believe without question that Pacquiao wants the fight and would take it if it could be made. I believe Mayweather sincerely believes Pacquiao uses performance-enhancing drugs and, as such, has concerns about taking the bout. If Pacquiao completely submitted to the drug-testing protocol that Mayweather is demanding, then I believe Mayweather would be interested in the bout from a competitive standpoint. From a business standpoint, Mayweather dislikes Arum tremendously and I believe is reticent to agree to the bout because he doesn’t want to see Arum gets such a huge payday. Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer would jump for joy if the fight could be made. Golden Boy is hired on a contract basis for each fight by Mayweather, so it has incentive to want the biggest fight. I’m not sure Arum really wants the fight, but I can’t be positive he doesn’t. I know Arum is aware of the fight’s historical significance and doesn’t want to be remembered in history as the guy who blocked it. That said, he dislikes Mayweather and Mayweather adviser Al Haymon as much as Mayweather dislikes him. There is more than a decade of extremely bad blood between them that will have to be overcome to get the fight made.
Kevin, shouldn’t boxing implement some kind of regulation that imposes on boxers some kind of mandatory fight when they refuse to fight the top contenders?
Alberto G. Balcarce
British Columbia, Canada
Alberto, the sanctioning bodies such as the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO already have such a rule. There are mandatory challengers and a champion will be stripped if he doesn’t fight his mandatory in a certain period of time. There are all sorts of problems with this, the first being that you can’t force anyone to fight someone they don’t want to fight. But the sanctioning bodies are arbitrary and capricious in their rankings and their decisions to strip champions. And in boxing, a lot of times, the fighters become bigger than the belts. For instance, Mayweather didn’t hold a championship when he fought Ortiz, but he was clearly the big star. For most fighters, the pain of losing the belt isn’t enough to compel them to take a fight they don’t like.
“Of course I have a game plan for Manny Pacquiao. My camp and I have studied him for years. I know what he likes to do and I know what I could do to make him uncomfortable. It would be an excellent fight. I couldn’t allow him to get on top of me and I’d have to make sure not to get caught with one of those big left hands he throws. But I’ve been paying attention and I have some thoughts on what I could do if I were to get that fight.” ? Super lightweight champion Timothy Bradley on the possibility of a fight against Pacquiao.
