Martinez Was Marvelous

So what is next for Martinez? A rematch with Pavlik, or perhaps another rematch with Paul Williams.

[Boxing Glove Notes]

When his previous athletic endeavors of cycling, tennis, and soccer reached an impasse, at the ripe old age of 20 years, Sergio Maravilla Martinez, from Spain by way of Argentina, decided to enter the world of boxing.

What a correct decision that was. He’s now the newly crowned champion of the middleweight division, having defeated, Kelly Pavlik, at Boardwalk Hall Convention Center, in Atlantic City, Saturday, April 17, 2010.

The stunned pro-Pavlik crowd witnessed the upset heard around the world. Martinez was just the better fighter despite having lost a close decision previously, to Paul Williams who was also in attendance last night.

From the press conference you could not help but notice Martinez’ confidence when he predicted victory. From the first round on you noticed that Martinez was not in awe of Pavlik. He used his well prepared plan of attack and defense to perfection; hitting Pavlik at will and moving out of harms way.

Pavlik, 36-2, 32, KO’s, appeared very slow and sluggish trying to catch up to the fast Martinez, missing many punches while Martinez counter-punched, causing a cut on Pavlik’s left eye and creating a bloody nose. In the eighth round Pavlik suffered a cut on his right eye that bled profusely not allowing him to see Martinez’ punches, which also caused some panic in Pavlik’s corner giving me the feeling that the ring doctor would stop the fight.

An off-balanced  Martinez suffered a flash knockdown in the 7th round from a soft Pavlik right hand, which appeared to look like the champion had finally caught up to Martinez. The turnaround was momentary. Martinez went right back to his well prepared plan, pounding Pavlik from all angles and from right to left.

Throughout the fight, Martinez, smiled, dropped his hands, wiggled his shoulders and even mimmicked the great Cuban weltwerweight champ of yesteryear, Kid Gavilan, by bolo punching Pavlik, without any return.

All in all, it was a victorious coming out party for Sergio Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KO’s) who appread to have strong leg strength, and stamina, perhaps because of his past rugged sports life which now allows him to enjoy at long last, not only being the current WBC Super Welterweight Champ, but also, the new WBC/WBO Middleweight Champ, which he said was a dream come true.
All judges were in accord although by different scores: Barbara Perez, 115-111, Robert Ramirez, 116-111, and Craig Metcalf, 115-112.  I scored the fight, 117-111, with the first round even.

So what is next for Martinez? A rematch with Pavlik, or perhaps another rematch with Paul Williams. If these fights don’t materialize, Martinez will fall into the same stagnated limbo of Pavlik, who after knocking out Jermain Taylor, for the Middleweight title, ran out of quality opponents. He had to fight Bernard Hopkins suffering his first defeat.

Another happy person besides Marinez was his promoter, Lou DiBella, who had just recently signed him up after the retirement of former Champ Taylor.

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

 

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