By Jim Dower: Thew newly designated WBC Emeritus middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (46-2-2, 25 KO’s) has been toiling in obscuring for the majority of his 14-year-old pro career, virtually known and ignored by the masses until recently. But in the past year, with wins over WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik and a recent 2nd round knockout victory over Paul Williams, the 35-year-old Martinez has suddenly become a popular fighter with boxing fans.

It seems like fans can’t get enough of Martinez and want to see him take on boxing’s number #1 star Manny Pacquiao. Thankfully, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is smart enough to realize that Pacquiao’s abilities to beat bigger and bigger fighters is only so deep. Arum isn’t about to put Pacquiao in with Martinez and watch him get knocked out and possibly damaged by the hard punching Argentinian.

With the middleweight division having few talented fighters to match up with Martinez, HBO decided on having the best fighter in the junior middleweight division, WBO champion Sergiy Dzinziruk for his next fight on March 12th. This could be Martinez’s moment to shine once again or it could be a situation where Martinez is exposed and brought down to earth. Dzinziruk isn’t a limited slugger like Pavlik nor is anything like the sloppy Paul Williams.

Dzinziruk isn’t going to just make it easy for Martinez by looking to overwhelm him with punches the way that Williams attempted to do. And he’s not someone that will be looking to land one big shot like Alex Bunema and Kermit Cintron were doing. Dzinziruk is more of a technical fighter who believes in throwing jabs and looking for opportunities to throw counter punches. This is the kind of fighter that exposes other fighters. Martinez he’s now got a lot to lose at this point. It’s going to be sad if Dzinziruk spoils things just when Martinez has suddenly found some fame.