By Tommaso Nappo: Fresh off his spectacular win over Paul Williams the obvious question for Sergio in the new year is who is next. To say the list of contenders for the Middleweight title is underwhelming would be an enormous understatement. Even though Martinez is 35yrs of age with this current crop of challengers he could still be Champ at 42 or 44 years of age. This group will certainly not be mistaken with the glory years of Hagler, Hearns, Mugabi.
Short of getting down to 150 to fight Manny which would be a financial wind fall for Martinez unlike one he has ever seen or likely to see; it would require him to surgically remove a limb to accomplish it. Another option would be for him to move up to 168 where there would be a large number of fights to be made Bute, Froch, Ward. But if he feels comfortable and is happy at the Middleweight limit then he is resigned to fighting the three Germans ( Felix Sturm, Sebastian Zbik,and Sebastian Sylvester, ) possibly Arthur Abraham. But in almost all of those instances it will involve a fight in Germany which can be a slippery slope. Possibly a fight with Dimitry Pirog of Russia could be made but in actuality who cares. Those that say a rematch match with either Williams or Pavlik both would be very unlikely at this time. Williams needs to learn how to fight using his size, which will mean some confidence building fights after a brutal knockout. Pavlik has some personal demons he needs to deal with before even thinking about a fight with Sergio. I personally would like to see him entice Margarito and avenge his earlier TKO loss.
Ideally the best case scenario for Martinez is that either Pacquiao agrees to come up to 154, or Floyd agrees to move up to challenge him for the Middleweight title ( Is a fight I would love to see). The next best case scenario would be to move up to 168 and get some big paying big time fights. The third option is not as appealing remaining at Middleweight fighting this crew of no name contenders in the parking lot of an IHOP with the odd Cracker Barrel thrown in ( Martinez fighting any of these guys in the States those are about the only locations to holds crowds that small ).
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