By Sean McDaniel: WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KO’s) is having a hard time letting go of the fact that WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and his promoter Bob Arum want no part of him.

Instead of seeing it for what it is and moving on, Martinez continues to talk about it repeatedly in the media, yet nothing changes. The WBC doesn’t appear to be willing to force Chavez Jr. to fight him for whatever reason. Since the sanctioning body that’s supposed to be in charge of these things isn’t interesting in forcing Chavez Jr. to defend his title against Martinez, then he’s got to move on.

Martinez should be focusing on his upcoming fight against Matthew Macklin (28-3, 19 KO’s) on March 17th at Madison Square Garden in New York. Martinez needs to concentrating on this fight, because Macklin is a step up from the last guy that Martinez fought Darren Barker.

Macklin looked good in his last fight against WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm last June, and fought well enough to deserve a 12 round decision.

Macklin didn’t get the win, but he showed a lot in that fight with his aggressive combination punching. He took some big punches as well from Sturm, and if he can walk though Martinez’s best punches then he could give a lot of trouble.

Martinez doesn’t throw a lot of punches and it’s doubtful that he’ll be able to match the high work rate from Macklin. He could get worked by the UK fighter if he’s not able to produce one of his big knockout blows. Martinez has gotten a rep in the past couple of years as a knockout artist and I think that’s not something that’s helped his game nor has it helped him get the fight against Chavez Jr.

Martinez is more a boxer-puncher and he’s at his best when he’s making his opponents look bad rather than just trying to take them out with one shot all the time nowadays.

As far as Chavez Jr. goes, Martinez needs to forget about that guy because he’s being shrouded by his promoter and the WBC isn’t lifting a finger to force him to make the fight with Martinez.

It would seem smarter for Martinez to dump the WBC Diamond belt altogether and focus on going after one of the other middleweight champions in the division instead of wasting years of his life trying to get the WBC belt back.