Sergio Martinez dropped Sergei Dzinziruk five times to claim an eighth round knock out over his outmatched Ukrainian opponent and claim the WBC Diamond Middleweight title.
The build up to the fight focused on whether the awkward safety first style of the unheralded Sergei Dzinziruk would spoil the all action style of 2010 BWAA Fighter of the Year Sergio Martinez. The reality was that Martinez outjabbed an individual that many of boxing?s cognoscenti considered a fighter with one of the best jabs in the world. Dzinziruk, 35, had never been previously knocked down in his career. Tonight he sampled the canvas five times, three times in the final punching eighth round.
?The goal was to nullify his punches and his jabs and we did that tonight,? said Martinez. ?I was waiting for his errors but he is a good fighter so it took time for him to make errors. But I got a new wind, pressed on the accelerator and got the win.?
For Martinez the goal now is to get the biggest fights he can. While he is a supernaturally young thirty-six years of age, time is in short supply for a fighter who has hit the mainstream only in the last year.
?It is a dream for me and obsesses me to be the number one pound for pound fighter in the world. I want the best in front of me. I want the Mayweathers and Pacquiaos.?
But the likelihood of Martinez getting these fights is remote to none. An inactive, and court-case saddled Mayweather only needs Pacquiao to generate money that Martinez could never hope to match. Pacquiao, considered by most to be the number one fighter in the world has showed reluctance in moving up in weight again. Martinez meanhwile has showed unwillingness to to step-up to the 168 pound super middleweight division, where the much taller, harder hitting spectres of Andre Ward and Lucian Bute lurk.
Tonight though Martinez cemented his place in the pantheon of the world?s best pound for pound fighters. He made a technically savvy, acclaimed fighter look ordinary. For Martinez that?s just Marvellous.
1:43 round 8
