By Eric Thomas: WBC/WBO middleweight champion Sergio Martinez could end up fighting 38-year-old Winky Wright (51-5-1, 25 KO’s) if a fight between Martinez and undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn’t happen, according to Sportsillustratrated. Martinez, 35, is going to wait and see if a bout between him and Mayweather can be put together. If not, then he could be facing Wright instead. This is an okay fight, but not quite as interesting as a rematch with Paul Williams, Kermit Cintron or Kelly Pavlik.

Martinez defeated Pavlik by a 12 round decision last month on April 17th. He was waiting to see if Pavlik would decide to fight him again, but Pavlik opted not to use his rematch clause. This frees Martinez up for a potential big money fight against Mayweather if Floyd doesn’t sign up to fight WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. Wright, a still good fighter, has been very inactive for the past three years, fighting only once against Paul Williams last year in April and losing that fight by a lopsided 12 round decision.

It was a case of Wright waiting for too long. Williams was the worst possible opponent for the ring rusty Wright to take on after three years out of the ring. He should have stayed active during these last three years and taken smaller money fights while he was waiting to get a big payday. Wright was beaten by Bernard Hopkins in 2007 by a 12 round decision. That loss started the three year period of Wright waiting for the perfect opponent to fight and not fighting.

Now another year has gone by since the loss to Williams and Wright can’t have been helped by the additional time off. If Martinez does fight Wright, it’s hard to see Wright winning that fight. Martinez is the wrong kind of opponent for Wright’s style. Winky does well against fighters that are stationary and who come right at him and struggles against fighters that move a lot, have fast hands and who throw a lot of punches. Martinez isn’t a really busy fighter, but he does throw a lot of combinations and does have good hand speed and movement. This fight would likely end up being another one-sided loss for Wright. I can’t blame him if he takes the fight, because it would, after all, be a title fight and it would give him a decent payday. However, I don’t like his chances of winning it because of his inactivity.