A death threat leveled at middleweight champion Sergio Martinez during the weekend forced the cancellation Monday of Martinez?s media workout scheduled for Tuesday in Ventura, Calif.
And with that, the summer boxing lull has definitely ended.
Nonito Donaire was touting his next fight at a press function Monday in Los Angeles, but in the Bay Area the focus is on the Andre Ward-Chad Dawson fight in Oakland now only 12 days distant.
There?s a Ward-Dawson media teleconference Tuesday. I went to Ward?s media workout Aug. 21 in Oakland and gathered several tidbits we?ll discuss during the buildup to the Sept. 8 showdown at Oracle Arena on HBO . The two combatants are the subject of an HBO 24/7 segment that premiered Saturday with Ward, easily the more media-savvy of the two, dominating the footage.
Following that premiere was a 15-minute Max Kellerman Face Off interview of Martinez and his Sept. 15 opponent, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., that generated way more sparks than the Ward-Dawson 24/7.
Martinez, the urbane-looking Argentine, verbally chewed up his less-accomplished opponent, the son of beloved Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez. Martinez was so nasty that you might imagine the Kellerman segment led to the death threat.
?This past weekend Sergio received threats from an unknown source and the car in front of his home was vandalized,? said Lou DiBella, Mart?nez’s promoter. ?Unfortunately, until we have a security team in place, we are going to have to suspend any and all public and media appearances for Sergio, including the upcoming media day scheduled for tomorrow.?
The Martinez session might have been worthwhile in tandem with Donaire?s appearance Monday in downtown Los Angeles, touting his Oct. 13 bout in Carson, Calif., against Toshiaki Nishioka. It would have been nice to see Donaire. His proximity and that of trainer Robert Garcia would have given me some entree to Brandon Rios, who is in the Oct. 13 sub-main against Mike Alvarado, and to Martinez, like Rios part of Garcia?s Oxnard training troops.
But three obligations in the Bay Area precluded my going to L.A. And now Tuesday isn?t the ideal time to make the 600-mile round trip to Ventura-Oxnard. Coincidentally, the Ventura venue Tuesday was to have been the one Victor Ortiz frequents, having foresaken Robert Garcia and his former close friend Rios.
I?ll get to the bottom of that someday. Meanwhile, let the police deal with Martinez, and we will focus here on Ward.
