Sergio Martinez wants Saul Alvarez bout if Chavez Jr. won’t fight him

By Boxing News - 03/21/2012 - Comments

Image: Sergio Martinez wants Saul Alvarez bout if Chavez Jr. won't fight himBy Allan Fox: According to an interview WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez gave to the record.com.mx, Martinez is interested in moving down to 154 to fight WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez if Martinez can’t get WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to agree to fight him in September. Chavez Jr. is Martinez’s first choice, but he has serious doubts about whether Chavez Jr. wants to fight him.

In the interview at the record.com.mx, Martinez, 37, said he wants Chavez Jr. to agree to Olympic style drug testing for performance enhancing drugs in order to fight him. However, it’s unclear whether the young 26-year-old Chavez Jr. will agree to the testing that Martinez wants. Martinez says he’s willing to take less money than Chavez Jr. but he definitely wants the drug testing in place before he fights him.

Chavez Jr. has been coming into his fights heavy at or near 180 lbs after re-hydrating. It could be tough on Martinez if he has give up 10 to 15 pounds in weight. That should be more of a concern for him than worrying about PEDs. What Martinez needs is to have some kind of rehydration limits in place the day of the fight to try and limit how much Chavez Jr. can balloon up in weight because he’s been coming into his fights recently as a small cruiserweight in size facing guys in the 160s. That’s a big advantage for Chavez Jr. to have, as he can beat his opposition on size alone when he’s that heavy.

Besides wanting a fight against Alvarez and Chavez Jr., Martinez also wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. and is willing to go down to 150 to try and fight him. Mayweather has mentioned liking the idea of fighting Martinez, but right now he’s got a fight coming up against WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto on May 5th. If Mayweather can get though that fight in one piece, then perhaps he’ll be interested in facing Martinez.



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