By Eric Thomas: WBC middleweight Diamond champion Sergio Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KO’s) will be defending his obscure Diamond title on October 1st against No.3 ranked World Boxing Council contender Darren Barker )23-0, 14 KO’s) at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Martinez, 36, wanted to fight top guys like Floyd Mayweather Jr, Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto and to a much, much lesser extent Julio Cesar Chavez Jr but none of them showed any interest in taking him on. Instead of getting a big fight, Martinez had to settle for the little known Barker, who American boxing fans aren’t too familiar with.

Martinez is quickly finding out what Paul Williams previously experienced and that’s the top guys don’t really want to fight you if you’re too good or look formidable in any way. Pacquiao, Cotto and Mayweather have shown no interest in fighting the hard hitting Martinez and that’s not likely to change until perhaps Martinez starts to shown signs of slipping the way that Shane Mosley did recently as he turned 39.

Martinez performances against Kelly Pavlik, Sergiy Dzinziruk and Paul Williams have made him into something of a monster in the eyes of many boxing fans, and that hasn’t helped Martinez any. Sometimes it doesn’t pay off to be too good, because other fighters won’t want to risk fighting you and losing badly. But what makes Martinez even more of risk is his power. He’s knocking guys out now and is showing Julian Jackson type power now that he’s sitting down on his punches more.

Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has no interest in matching Pacquiao with Martinez, and that’s the best fight Martinez could hope for. Even Cotto isn’t interested in facing Martinez. What this all means is that Martinez has to settle for guys like Barker and probably Marco Antonio Rubio instead of facing the other guys. It’s too because Martinez has worked hard to get to where he’s at and yet he’s still not able to get the top fighters to take him on.

There is a chance that Martinez can land a fight against Chavez Jr in the next year, but that’s not the same thing as fighting big stars like Mayweather, Cotto and Pacquiao. Even a fight against Chavez Jr might not happen if his promoter doesn’t bless it, and it’s difficult to seeing Arum agreeing to letting Chavez Jr face a puncher like Martinez.