Sergio Martinez…who next?

By Boxing News - 03/15/2011 - Comments

By Liam Brindle / Lee Demain: In recent interviews with Sergio Gabriel Martinez (39-2-2) I cannot help but notice that he is obsessed with trying to become the P4P king. In my opinion it is a great ambition to have and a very realistic one if he continues on with the rich vein of form that he is currently on.

To do so he will have to get past : Manny Pacquiao (52-3-2) who love him or hate him is absolutely demolishing and embarrassing everything thrown in front of him right now, Floyd Mayweather Jr (41-0-0) who is not active and therefore in my opinion should not be in the P4P list, but is a tremendous boxer and the tenacious Nonito Donaire (26-1-0) who is set to unify the bantam weight division.

The thing that I notice when I look at the fighter who are ‘ahead’ of Martinez in terms of P4P, is that they have dominated their weight division and have or are looking to move up through the weight divisions and continue to dominate.

Now I know that Martinez did start as a Welterweight and has made the move up through the weights but I do not think that Martinez has ‘Dominated’ a weight division in his career…until now.

He is beginning to dominate the Middleweight division but it seems that he is more interested in chasing smaller men for his next fight, every time I see him interviewed he is calling out either : Miguel Cotto, Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather. I am not sure whether he is doing this for the pay day or he thinks this is the best way to climb the P4P ladder.

If Martinez was to get a fight with Cotto I am certain that he would want it at 160lbs where he has found his best form and I am sure Cotto would struggle to establish himself at all, yet is he was to land a fight with Pacquiao or Mayweather he would move to 154lbs where he would still be able to establish a size and strength advantage.
Let’s just imagine for one second that he was to fight Pacquiao at 160lbs and Pacquiao was doing this to extend his extraordinary rise through the weight divisions and Martinez was to stop Pacquiao, would this make Martinez Mr P4P? in my opinion it wouldn’t it would increase my respect for the Pac-Man and I think the ‘Boxing Fans’ would just be thinking ‘oh well, at least Pac tried’ and ‘Jesus Pacquiao has some balls!’.

I think that if Martinez wants to make a serious assault on the P4P list then he needs to truly dominate his division and he should go after the likes of Sebastian Sylvester (34-3-1) (WBA, IBF) and then even maybe Dmitry Pirog (17-0-0) who sensationally stopped Golden Boys Golden Boy Daniel Jacobs (22-1-0) last year.

He could do this by the end of 2011 and then he could even look at moving up to Super Middle Weight where there are some big names.

If Sergio is calling out these ‘smaller men’ for the pay day, then I honestly believe that if he takes the route that I have stated above then he will become a massive draw in his own right instead of attempting to beat a ‘smaller’ big draw, where I believe if he does this it will not make him a big draw because he will hold all the advantages.

I am aware that Martinez turned 36 in February this year but the man is in absolutely magnificent condition and he will be around long enough to achieve what he has set out to achieve.



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