By Joe Met: After his recent 8th round knockout of Sergiy Dzinziruk, Sergio Martinez has found himself in a position where many people feel he may well mount a genuine challenge for the P4P top spot currently occupied by Manny Pacquiao, and many boxing fans feel that the best way to go about claiming that crown is to take it from the man who is currently wearing it.

But I see a match up between Martinez and Pacquiao as pretty unlikely, and to be honest I don’t see it as the best option. And with Floyd Mayweather Jnr currently inactive until further notice, Sergio’s dream of hitting the P4P top spot may have to go a different and more traditional route.

The first issue to address with regard to a Martinez-Pacquiao bout would be at what weight the proposed fight would take place at, with Pacquiao fighting at welterweight, and Martinez at middleweight. Pacquiao fought at a catch weight of 150lbs against Antonio Margarito for the vacant WBC light-middleweight title in November of last year, but shortly after the fight Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, stated that Pacquiao would be moving back down to the 147lb division and wouldn’t be moving up in weight again. That seems pretty reasonable to me considering that Pacquiao only stands at 5’ 6” and began his career fighting at less than 110lbs. He has proved that he can beat men much bigger than himself and at some point a line has to be drawn when it comes to moving up the weight divisions, the guy has won titles at 8 different weights, what more do you want?
I don’t believe either, that the fight could take place at welterweight, with Sergio being a natural middleweight standing at a very muscular 5’ 10” and having not made 147lbs for 10 years. The only other option would be a catch weight similar to that of the Margarito fight, but what would that prove? That Martinez could move down in weight to beat a much smaller fighter who was moving up?

The guys who take the pound for pound crown are usually the guys who move up through the divisions taking on bigger guys and winning titles at heavier weights. Roy Jones Jnr, Oscar Del a Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao all moved up through the weights winning world titles before going on to claim the P4P top spot, and I think Sergio needs to do the same.

His last three fights have all been impressive victories and he needs to build on that by first unifying the middleweight division by beating 2 out of the other four champions, Sebastien Zbik, Sebastian Sylvester, felix Sturm or Dimitri Pirog. The next step would be moving up to the super-middleweight division and taking on one of the champions who isn’t tied up in the Super Six tourney…. Bute or Stieglitz and taking their titles from them.

By this time the SuperSix would probably be over and he could take on the winner of that (most likely Carl Froch or Andre Ward) and then move up to light heavyweight and take a title at that weight. THEN, and ONLY then would his record start to resemble those of the two guys above him in the P4P list, Pacquiao who won titles at 8 different weights, and Mayweather who has won titles at 5 different weights. Three impressive fights doesn’t make a guy the best fighter on the planet as far as I am concerned, for that particular accolade you have to produce a sustained and consistent period of dominance whilst moving up through the divisions winning world titles. That’s what all the other guys had to do, so why should Sergio be any different? I can appreciate the buzz surrounding Martinez at the moment, but I think it’s important to keep things in perspective and not get carried away too quickly, you can’t just sweep past hall of famers and all time greats like Pacquiao and Mayweather to the top of the P4P list off the back of 3 decent wins.