By Scott Gilfoid: If WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. doesn’t step up to the plate to fight former World Boxing Council middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KO’s) on March 17th, Martinez will be forced to fight a stay busy fight against #4 WBA, #4 WBO ranked Matthew Macklin (28-3, 19 KO’s) while he waits for the WBC to strip or force Chavez Jr. to defend his title against Martinez.

The Macklin fight is a less than appealing bout, to be sure, because it would be such an easy fight for the 36-yer-old Martinez. He just got finished beating British middleweight Darren Barker by an 11th round TKO last Month in October, and now he would be facing another Brit in another mismatch. I think it’s a waste to be honest, because there are better fighters out there for Martinez to stay active against compared to Macklin.

I’d much rather see Martinez fight Marco Antonio Rubio, Gennady Golovkin, Grzegorz Proksa, Nobuhiro Ishida, Osumanu Adama, Daniel Jacobs, Sebastian Zbik, David Lemieux, Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam, Felix Sturm or Daniel Geale. I rate those fighters all above Macklin. But by facing Macklin, it’s too much of an easy mismatch and not really a good competitive fight that will both interest and ultimately entertain fans.

Let Macklin face some of the other contenders and prove that he’s worthy of fighting a quality fighter like Martinez. He already failed miserably when he fought WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm last June and is still inactive since losing that fight. By letting Macklin fight the best fighter in the division in Martinez, it’s almost like rewarding Macklin for having lost to Sturm. That’s just not right.

Macklin should start from the bottom of the top 20 and his work his way back up. I he can beat guys like Rubio, Zbik, Ishida, N’Jikam, Adama, Lemieux and Proksa, only then should he get a fight against Martinez. I don’t see Macklin beating any of those guys, and that’s what makes him such a sorry choice for Martinez. He can do much better than this guy.