By Dan Ambrose: According to the latest news, HBO has passed on the idea of WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez fighting middleweight contender Andy Lee (24-1, 18 KO’s) on March 12th and want Martinez instead to fight unbeaten World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior middleweight champion Sergeii Dzinziruk (37-0, 23 KO’s). I can understand why HBO might not be interested in the Martinez-Lee fight because Lee has done pretty much zero since being stopped in the 7th round by Bryan Vera, a former contestant from the reality television program The Contender.

Lee fought well in the early rounds against Vera but caved in when Vera started tagging him with hard right hands to the head. HBO might be thinking that they could have a mismatch on their hands if Martinez crushes Lee early with a big left and they would have a lot of air time to fill. Lee needs to prove himself against better fighters before facing someone like Martinez. I wouldn’t want to see Lee get hurt and it would very likely be another mismatch similar to the Paul Williams vs. Martinez bout recently, which saw Martinez knock Martinez out in the 2nd round with a left to the head.

Dzinziruk, 34, at least would give Martinez problems because of his boxing skills. Dzinziruk has an excellent jab and is hard to hit because of his defensive skills and movement. Dzinziruk, a southpaw like Martinez, has superb amateur credentials and is perhaps the best fighter in the junior middleweight division now that Martinez has moved up to middleweight. That’s not a knock on WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, but I think Dzinziruk is a much better fighter than Cotto and would box circles around him if the two were to fight. Dzinziruk would be a very good opponent for Martinez to fight on HBO on March 12th.