By Manuel Perez: Light middleweight power puncher Alex Bunema (30-6-2, 16 KOs) finally round out of luck on Saturday night, when he was way out of his league in terms of boxing skills and ended up being stopped at the end of the 8th round by Spaniard Sergio Martinez (44-1-1, 24 KOs) at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, in Temecula, California. Martinez, 33, in winning the fight, captured the interim WBC light middleweight title which was on the line on Saturday night. Bunema, also 33, and perhaps the hardest overall puncher in the light middleweight division, didn’t have the speed or the work rate to catch up to the elusive Martinez, and hence was unable to land anything of note in the fight.
Bunema was knocked down in the 3rd round by a left hook from Martinez, although he wasn’t hurt in that case. However, in the 7th round, Bunema was hurt, after getting hit with a flurry of hard punches from Martinez at midpoint of the round. On the verge of being knocked out, Bunema instinctively grabbed a hold of Martinez to prevent him from hitting him anymore. However, as soon as the two fighters were separated, Martinez continued hitting Bunema with a massive amount of punches until the end of the round. Even before hurting him in the round, though, Martinez had been tagging him repeatedly with hard jabs and left hands without one shot from Bunema coming back.
By Manuel Perez: Light middleweight contenders Sergio Martinez (43-1-1, 23 KOs) and Alex Bunema (30-5-2, 16 KOs) meet up on Saturday night in a 12-round bout for the interim WBC light middleweight title at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, in Temecula, California. This is a classic fight between a boxer -Martinez – and a pure slugger (Alex). Martinez, 33, from Argentina, is ranked number #2 in the WBC, although he’s faced very limited competition during his long 11 year professional career. Most of his fights have occurred in Argentina, where he’s defeated largely unknown fighters. Other than Antonio Margarito, who stopped Martinez in the 7th round in February 2000, he’s faced mostly fluff fighters whom he’s built up his impressive record on.