By Dan Ambrose: WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KO’s) is open to the idea of facing WBA/WBC middleweight champion Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KO’s) in 2012, albeit with the help of a handy catchweight, according to RingTV. Martinez is already scheduled to fight Mathew Macklin on March 17th, but once that stay busy fight is out of the way, Martinez will be free to make the fight with Ward if he’s really serious about wanting to fight him.

Martinez told Ringtv “I don’t know about 168 pounds, but it’s an option.” Read: it’s the option of last resort. Don’t look for Martinez to take the fight at the full weight. He won’t do that, and the fight will have to require that Ward sacrifice some of his own natural weight if the bout is to be successfully negotiated. A reasonable catchweight would be 164lbs. That’s a doable number for Ward I imagine. If Martinez comes with something like 162lbs, then you’ll that he wants no part of facing Ward and is just looking for a way out.

Ward wants the fight, saying to ringtv “I like it.” Ward has a mandatory coming up for his WBC title against unbeaten Anthony Dirrell (24-0, 21 KO’s), so it could take a step aside payment given to Dirrell in order for the fight to go ahead. But then again, it’s the WBC so it may not even be necessary.

Martinez wanted to fight WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., but he’s been skipped over for a fight due to Chavez Jr. getting permission from the WBC to fight Marco Antonio Rubio on February 4th.

Ward says he’s going to make a decision about who he’ll fight next after the New Years. He just finished beating Carl Froch in the Super Six tournament by an impressive 12 round decision.