By Allan Fox: WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s) will be fighting in front of a packed house when he makes his first defense of his title against Martin Murray (25-0-1, 11 KO’s) on April 27th at the Club Atletico Velez Sarsfield, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
According to ole.com.ar, there are few tickets left of the 40,000+ tickets that went on sale for the 48,000 seat stadium, and those tickets are likely to go quickly within the next 30 days as the fight draws nearer. That shows you how popular the 38-year-old Martinez has become in his home country of Argentina.
Martinez lives in Spain now, and hasn’t fought in his original home country in 11 years since he defeated a fighter named Francisco Antonio Mora by a 10 round unanimous decision in February 2002. I imagine Martinez would have been back in Argentina a lot time ago if he realized that he could draw crowds of over 40,000 for his fights.
Martinez is coming off of an impressive 12 round unanimous decision win over former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. last September in Las Vegas, Nevada. Martinez dominated the first 11 rounds of the fight, but then was knocked down in the 12th when he made the mistake of standing directly in front of the desperate Chavez Jr. Martinez was able to get back up to his feet and survive the round by slugging with the young 27-year-old Chavez Jr.
In getting knocked down, Martinez tore ligaments in his left knee while following down. Martinez also broke his left hand, and had a cut that required eight stitches above his left eye. He needed surgery to repair his damaged knee, but he did a great job of rehabbing the knee and he’s ready to go next month.
Murray, 30, defeated Jorge Navarro by a 6th round TKO in his last fight in November of last year. Murray fought to a 12 round draw with former WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm in December of 2011.
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