By Dave Lahr: It’s been 10 years since Sergio Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KO’s) last fought Antonio Margarito (37-6, 27 KO’s), In that fight, Martinez, then a young 25-years-old, was battered by the relentless Margarito and taken out with a flurry of clubbing shots in the 7th round on February 19th, 2000. Martinez never avenged that defeat, and instead moved on with his career but failed to find big time success until eight years later when he captured the World Boxing Council light middleweight interim title with an 8th round stoppage of Alex Bunema in 2008.

Margarito, now 32, has found success on his own, winning both the WBA and WBO welterweight titles. Although Margarito’s fortunes have changed somewhat recently because of the hand wrap issue that turned up last year before his bout against Shane Mosley in 2009, Margarito coming back in May against Roberto Garcia. Once Margarito gets that fight out of the way, I think he would be the perfect opponent for Martinez to fight. Sergio could fight Margarito at 154, and try to avenge his defeat.

Margarito wore Martinez out 10 years ago with his nonstop punching in the fight. Could Margarito still do it 10 years later? Martinez fought well in the early rounds of that fight, landing with left hands and getting away without getting hit. But Margarito kept coming forward constantly, throwing punch after punch and wearing Martinez out as the fight wore on. Can you imagine what that fight would be like now that Margarito is fresh from inactivity and Martinez has just gotten out of two hard fights with Paul Williams and Kelly Pavlik?

Back in 2000, Margarito wasn’t as good as he would become later in his career. He may not be quite as good as he was back in 2008 when he beat Miguel Cotto by an 11th round stoppage, but he would be close enough to present big problems for Martinez with his high work rate.

It would be like Martinez facing a more powerful version of Paul Williams, with Margarito throwing 100 punches per round against Martinez. I think Margarito would have an excellent chance of beating Martinez again as long as his stamina wasn’t negatively affected by his year layoff from boxing. I think if Margarito was able to fight really hard the way he has in the past, averaging 100 punches thrown per round, he could end up stopping Martinez again by the 6th or 7th rounds.

Rather than seeing Martinez fight a rematch with Kelly Pavlik, and seeing him beat Pavlik once again, I’d much prefer to see Martinez fight a rematch with someone who has beaten him before like Margarito. Now that’s a fight that I consider competitive.