If this bout takes place, it will serve as ample evidence that Sturm has no pride, Martinez no sense, and boxing no shame?
?I can?t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.??Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Now I know how Ruth Snyder felt when Robert Elliott pulled the switch.
I got a helluva jolt this morning over at RingTV.com when I read Anson Wainwright?s report on the possibility of a bout between former middleweight champs Sergio Martinez and Felix Sturm.
Really? Martinez lost his WBC championship on June 7, retired in the 10th by?Gennady Golovkin? Make that Miguel Cotto. The Puerto Rican is good, all right, but he isn?t even a true middleweight, and is unlikely to have won if the Argentine didn?t have the knees of your average octogenarian.
The 39-year-old southpaw has nothing to be ashamed of. His record is hardly marred by his three losses and two draws. ?Maravilla? has, after all, won 51, 28 by knockout?a record that doesn?t require the slightest gilding and doesn?t lend itself to a whole lot of carping. Time to retire with dignity wholly and knees semi intact. Does he want to go out on a win? Does he need to? Sugar Ray Robinson didn?t. And if Robinson didn?t have a problem with Joey Archer being his last opponent, Martinez should shrug his shoulders at Cotto being his. But if he?s dead set on this once more unto the breach crap, then he should at least consider someone like fellow Argentine, Gino Godoy. Felix Sturm is a bridge too far.
The 35-year-old German has seen better days, no question of that, but he?s nevertheless too dangerous for a faded and crippled Martinez. True, Sturm lost his last fight, along with his IBF strap, to Sam Soliman by unanimous decision on May 31. His record is nevertheless impressive, winning 39, 18 by knockout, and only losing four and drawing two. Moreover, he?s only been stopped once, by Javier Castillejo via 10th-round TKO in 2006. ?The Fighter? lost his WBA strap in that bout, but won it back from Castillejo by unanimous decision the following year. Martinez has been stopped twice?by Antonio Margarito, who won by seventh-round TKO in 2000, and by Cotto in June. Granted, the Argentine would probably have beaten the German, say, two or three years ago, but that was then and this is now. Martinez, as Lewis Carroll would no doubt put it, used to be much muchier. He?s lost much of his muchness.
The possibility of this bout ?is music to the ears of Sturm,? Wainwright reports. I?ll bet. Music to Sturm?s ears, but Time?s winged chariot hurrying near for Martinez.
There?s a smidgen of Pandoran hope. While Lou DiBella, Martinez?s promoter, appears excited at the prospect, he concedes that ?Sergio still has to go and be checked out by a doctor in New York,? an examination that?s scheduled for next month.
I respectfully disagree with my colleague over at RingTV, who says, ?It?s a shame that these two veteran world champions weren?t able to meet in their primes in a unification bout. However, if the two sides can come together to broker a deal, it would be better late than never.? Maybe they should have fought then, but that doesn?t mean that they should fight now. If this bout takes place, it will serve as ample evidence that Sturm has no pride, Martinez no sense, and boxing no shame.
