Sergio Martinez vs. Andre Ward a possibility if Martinez leaves HBO and signs with Showtime

By Boxing News - 01/05/2012 - Comments

Image: Sergio Martinez vs. Andre Ward a possibility if Martinez leaves HBO and signs with ShowtimeBy Eric Thomas: A fight between WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KO’s) and Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KO’s) is Martinez goes ahead and leaves HBO like he’s been talking about.

Both Ward and Martinez have expressed interest in fighting in 2012. However, the one big sticking point that immediately could be an issue is that Martinez has a contract to have his fights televised by HBO, whereas Ward’s fights are shown on Showtime.

However, Martinez, 36, is reportedly unhappy with HBO because they weren’t interested in putting on his title defense against No.1 ranked World Boxing Council challenger Sebastian Zbik last year, and instead preferred that Martinez fight unbeaten Sergiy Dzinziruk, the WBO junior middleweight champion.

Not too long after Martinez stopped in the 8th round last March, the WBC stripped Martinez of his WBC title and gave it to Zbik. He in turn faced Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. last June and was beaten.

Now Chavez Jr. has Martinez’s old WBC belt and he and his promoter aren’t particularly interested in facing Martinez despite orders from the WBC for them to do so. Martinez feels that he wouldn’t have lost his WBC title in the first place had HBO been interested in showing his planned title defense against #1 challenger Zbik.

Next week, Martinez and HBO will be meeting on Tuesday to talk, according to RingTV. If Martinez and HBO aren’t able to work things out, we could see Martinez jump ship and move over to Showtime where he could then get a big fight against Ward this year.

Not only that, but Martinez would also have the options of facing other top super middleweights like IBF champion Lucian Bute and the Dirrell brothers, Andre and Anthony. Of course, Ward is the biggest target right now because he’s perceived to be the best fighter in the super middleweight division by many boxing fans.



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