Sergio Martinez vs. Gennady Golovkin won’t be happening, says Martinez’s promoter

By Boxing News - 01/25/2013 - Comments

golovkin1By Dan Ambrose: Lou Dibella, the promoter for WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s), doesn’t see any upside in him putting the soon to be 38-year-old Martinez in with the hard hitting unbeaten WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (25-0, 22 KO’s) in a unification fight.

Dibella said this about the idea of having him match Martinez against Golvokin to espn.go.com “No way. Golovkin doesn’t draw a dime! [Miguel] Cotto and [Manny] Pacquiao would never get asked about this.”

As Dan Rafael pointed out earlier today, Dibella didn’t feel this way when he was trying to get Martinez a fight with the more popular former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. last year in September. He didn’t mind the fact that his fighter Martinez was the lesser known guy and the one that wasn’t a big seller in the United States.

Chavez Jr. still gave Martinez the opportunity despite his lack of a big name in the U.S, but it doesn’t look like Dibella wants to give Golovkin the same opportunity.
I doubt that Martinez is that much more of a ticket seller in the U.S than Golovkin.

Martinez is popular in Argentina, but without Chavez Jr. facing him, I’d be surprised if Martinez could sell out a 3000 seat venue in Las Vegas, Nevada. Martinez might be able to sell a few more tickets now after gaining more fame and attention because of the Chavez Jr. fight, but before that fight, Martinez wasn’t a huge seller in the U.S. But it’s interesting that Dibella doesn’t feel that he should give Golovkin a shot at Martinez.

What’s funny is when you look at who Martinez is fighting next, Martin Murray (25-0-1, 11 KO’s), on April 27th, it kind of takes the heat out of Dibella’s excuse for not fighting Golovkin because Murray is completely unknown in the United States.

The only reason the Martinez-Murray fight will sell tickets is because Martinez is taking it to his home country of Argentina to have it take place there rather than the U.S. The fight will sell well not because Murray is a popular fighter, but because the Argentinian boxing fans just want to see Martinez fight. It seems to me that the much bigger fight is Martinez vs. Golovkin than Martinez vs. Murray.

I guess you can’t blame Dibella for not wanting to put Martinez in with Golovkin because if Martinez loses that fight, he’ll likely lose his big money rematch against Chavez Jr. in September. Dibella seems to be playing it safe with Martinez rather than having him take risks.



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