By Dominic Sauboorah: Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are regarded as the two best pound for pound fighters on the planet. Mayweather who’s remained unbeaten after 43 fights and Pacquiao who has won world titles in eight different weight classes.
They are future hall of famers without question; however their closest adversary is someone who is very underrated despite the fact that he’s ranked No.3 pound for pound.
Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez is a former super welterweight world champion and reigning lineal middleweight world champion. A slick Argentinean south paw who’s beaten some of the best fighters in the world. His low slung gloves are somewhat deceiving as a lot of the time he’s very hard to catch clean. His age is extremely surprising considering that for a 37 year old he keeps himself in great shape. His power and speed is second to none as his straight left hand is one of the most decisive and deadly I have ever seen in this modern era of boxing. Sergio Martinez is a technically gifted south paw that has tremendous punching power and hand speed. He is definitely a force to be reckoned with.
For the last 4-5 years all the hype around boxing has been based on a potential clash between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. One of the best offensive fighters in the world against one of the best defensive fighters in the world. A lot of mainstream fans see it as a pick ‘em fight, I don’t. Mayweather of course would have to deal with a few problems from Pacquiao, due to the fact that he’s a quick south paw that punches from different angles and everybody knows that Mayweather has had problems in the past with south paws. The big issue however is that Pacquiao is a fair few inches shorter that Mayweather and Mayweather has shown to be very effective at picking apart smaller opponents such as Ricky Hatton and Juan Manuel Marquez. Floyd Mayweather could easily follow Marquez’s blue print from his last fight with Pacquiao and simply counter punch him all night. The big difference would be is that Mayweather wouldn’t need to stand toe to toe with Pacquiao, since he’s the naturally bigger guy so getting out of the way of Pacquiao’s punches will be just as easy as he proved when he dominated Marquez. Manny Pacquiao is not the most technical of fighters, hence why the likes of Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto were able to pin him down at times and land combinations against him.
Sergio Martinez has basically all the attributes that Manny does and even more too. Martinez has the same build as Mayweather, therefore Floyd won’t be able to pick him off at range. He’s also very hard to catch, thereby Mayweather could jump in with a punch and get caught by one of Martinez’s shots which could easily send Mayweather to the canvas considering that Martinez is used to knocking down middleweights let alone welterweights. Mayweather has shown that he’s struggled against South Paws who are technical. A perfect example could be Zab Judah, who completely out boxed Mayweather and even knocked him down within the first five rounds. Unfortunately for Judah he ran out of steam, nevertheless Martinez has shown that he can turn it up a notch in the later rounds due to his conditioning.
Manny Pacquiao Vs Floyd Mayweather. A tough fight that Mayweather would be expected to win nonetheless as he’s used to beating smaller guys. Sergio Martinez Vs Floyd Mayweather. A fight that could go either way considering that Mayweather has struggled with technical southpaws before and Martinez isn’t just technical but he’s also a natural middleweight that has speed, punching power and is difficult to catch. Floyd Mayweather’s idea of a nightmare opponent? I believe so.
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