At the beginning of this year, Manny Pacquiao was secure in his status as the pound-for-pound best fighter in boxing. His main rival, Floyd Mayweather Jr., was inactive and beset with legal troubles. Sergio Martinez was a comer, but he had a long way to go to match the accomplishments of either Pacquiao or Mayweather.
As the year draws to a close, the all three of the elite trio will have been in the ring before December. Earlier this month, Mayweather scored a controversial fourth-round knockout over WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz. The controversy was due to a headbutt by Ortiz and a pair of ?legal sucker punches? by Mayweather. Despite the debate over whether or not Mayweather?s conduct was sportsmanlike, Floyd is once again right behind Pacquiao on the pound-for-pound list after a 16-month absence. And the hunger for a fight between the two of them has been reignited after a lull.
Next up is Martinez, who defends his WBC ?Diamond? (don?t ask) middleweight title against undefeated but untested Darren Barker this coming Saturday. Martinez, a late-bloomer at age 36, should be able to dispose of Barker as easily as he did another undefeated, untried challenger, Serhiy Dzinziruk, earlier this year. Victories such as these are basically place-holders for ?Maravilla.? A win over someone like WBA champ Felix Sturm or IBF belt-holder Danny Geale would have advanced Martinez?s cause. Alas, those matches could not be made. Maybe next year.
