Sergio Martinez: Saturday’s Fight and the Future
By Joseph Garcia
(CEO/Publisher Note: Joseph Garcia is our newest Feature Writer at RSR. I, along with the rest of the team, welcome him aboard!)
Sergio Martinez, 46-2-2, 25 KOs, the #3 or #2 if Floyd Mayweather, JR., is indeed stripped of his Ring Magazine ranking due to inactivity, pound-for-pound fighter in the world returns to action Saturday at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut on HBO against Serhiy Dzinziruk, 37-0, 23 KO’s.
Sergio is coming off his scintillating second round knockout of Paul “The Punisher” Williams in November in a rematch of their first controversial match (how Pierre Benoist scored the fight 119-110 for Williams still blows my mind) and a unanimous decision of Kelly Pavlik in April of 2010 to capture the WBC and WBO Middleweight Titles.
Dzinziruk is moving up in weight to challenge Martinez but is a relative unknown in the United States and it will be interesting to see the ratings the HBO show does in competition with Showtime’s card featuring Miguel Cotto and Ricardo Mayorga. At this point in his career Sergio is interested only in the big fights but who else can he fight in the future?
Some candidates:
Paul Williams
The series is tied up at 1-1 and boxing is known for its trilogies – why not go for the third?
They’ve delivered two crowd-pleasing bouts (the second one was short but I’d put big money that a second round KO would happen again) and we need the third fight to complete the series.
Miguel Cotto
At this stage in his career, Cotto still carries a big name and would be an appealing candidate to fight at the junior middleweight division (This is also anticipating Cotto gets by human punching bag and loud-mouth Ricardo Mayorga).
Their styles would make for a good mix of boxing and would result in some great exchanges.
Andy Lee/Craig McEwan winner
This fight is on the undercard of the same event with the winner most likely getting the right to face the winner of Martinez/Dzinziruk. Given Lee’s Irish roots, if he scores a victory a Martinez/Lee could be an appealing fight in New England given the large Irish population.
Kelly Pavlik
“The Ghost” is scheduled to make his return on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao/Mosley fight on May 7th. If he has indeed gotten his life together, a Pavlik rematch would make for great boxing.
A cut to this left eyebrow made it hard for Pavlik to see but he did mount a comeback in the later rounds.
Floyd Mayweather, JR
Ummm…on second thought, let’s not hold our breaths.
Modeling
Martinez is the first boxer I’ve seen score a devastating knockout and hit the crowd with “Blue Steel”. If no other big-fights come up maybe he can dial up Ben Stiller and ask for a role in Zoolander 2.
Any other thoughts of who would be a good option for Martinez?