(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Allan Fox: Sampson Lewkowicz, says that former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KO’s) won’t be making a decision on whether he’ll be retiring or not for at least three months. Martinez needs time to think about his future and it’s going to take him a considerable amount of time to make a concrete decision.
Martinez, 39, was thrashed by Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KO’s) in a surprise upset loss to the much smaller Puerto Rican fighter at MSG in New York. The loss was a devastating one for Martinez’s career, because it was a fight that wasn’t close at all, even from the start. Cotto had Martinez on the deck three times in the opening round, and he continued to pummel him in the other rounds as well.
“I don’t think that he will be making any decision over the next few months. I think that he needs time to see how his body reacts and how he feels, mentally,” said Lewkowicz to RingTV. “The people love him, he’s an idol, but he doesn’t need the money to fight again. If he asks my advice, I will give it to him, but it will be made to him, privately, and not to the public. He deserves that respect from me.”
If Martinez does continue to fight then he’s going to need to do something about trying to strengthen his knees so that he’s able to move like he once did before he suffered the knee injuries. If Martinez’s knees are beyond hope, then he’ll need to become more defensive by using his jab and staying on the outside instead of looking to fire off power shots.
It looked like Martinez had lost a lot of his power from before he faced Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in 2012, and the only thing that you could attribute the loss of power to is from the knee injuries. Martinez might need additional time to further rehab his knees. It would be in his best interest to hook up with experts that are knowledgeable about rehabbing athletes with knee injuries.
Martinez can probably get another payday or two by sticking around the sport for another year. But he should avoid taking any tune-up fights because as shaky as Martinez looked against Cotto, he could very well lose to even 2nd tier fighters at this point in his career. He doesn’t move well enough now to get out of the way of shots, and he doesn’t have the power now to score knockouts anymore.