Even granted better foresight, I would still stand by my assessment that Sergio Martinez vs. Paul Williams was comparable, in style and substance, to Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Tommy Hearns. To elaborate on substance, Saturday night proved that what we know of Martinez is still fractional.
This may be a strange statement considering Martinez is 35-years-old and his number of professional fight has just reached the half-century mark. But for his amount of time in the ring, his time in the public consciousness only goes back four fights.
Almost nobody reading the news or reveling in the excitement surrounding Martinez, myself included, knew anything about him on June, 7 2008. That night Martinez was fighting Archak TerMeliksetian at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Martinez would win by knockout, the 24th of his career and his last until the rematch against Paul Williams.
Fighting Kermit Cintron, Kelly Pavlik and Williams, Martinez was groomed in the public eye as more a stylist than a puncher, quick moving with ring knowledge just as fast.
Martinez fought Cintron to a draw in a baffling decision that should have been rendered a knockout.
Martinez beat Pavlik in a way that the middleweight crown probably would not have fit again anyway.
And in the first fight against Williams, the tall and lanky ?Punisher? was rocked more than once.
I would still say, in freak physicality and aggression alone, that Williams is still comparable to Hearns. In this respect it might be appropriate to compare Martinez-Williams II to Hearns-Iran Barkley I. In that fight, in the summer of ?88 at Caesars Palace, Barkley, a big underdog, knocked Hearns through the ropes in the third round.
The Barkley knockout had all the excitement, but not the one-punch finality of the Martinez punch:
No, Martinez-Williams II bears better resemblance to Roy Jones Jr. ? Antonio Tarver II. The brashness and certainty of a victory was prevalent throughout the Martinez press tour as it is with Tarver, well, anytime you hear from Tarver. Martinez, in comparison to Tarver, was also promising a knockout against an opponent that had never been down for the count before. Tarver added punctuation to his claim with his now infamous response to referee Jay Nady?s standard ?Any questions?? with ?I got a question, you got any excuses tonight Roy??.
The most obvious comparison between the two fights was the big left hand that neither Jones or Williams saw coming and which guaranteed that neither remembered their trip to the canvas. Both fighters were out on their feet and both fell limply and landed with limbs astray.
Fight comparisons aside, Martinez is setting himself apart as one of a kind, a fighter of athletic ability and raw power, of style and substance.
With a lack of talent in the middleweight division it is not easy to predict where Martinez will go from here. Martinez fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. would be a great fight but with Mayweather?s seeming unwillingness to fight Pacquiao it would be unlikely that he would jump at the opportunity to fight an equally as dangerous Martinez. Martinez against Pacquiao would be an intriguing fight but is improbable due to weight issues. Lucian Bute is an interesting matchup, as is anyone left from the Super Six (Does anyone else think Andre Ward vs. Martinez could also be a ?fight of the year??).
As someone one famously said and has been repeated, ?You dont play boxing?. It is a sport of extreme highs and lows, of fleeting moments. Just ask former WBC Middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik, whose knockout of Jermaine Taylor three years ago made him one of the top in the sport and to whom the nickname ?The Ghost? seems more appropriate now than ever.
So let?s enjoy this moment, regardless of where it goes from here. At this moment it is truly una maravilla a ver.
