By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KO’s ) has a nice little mismatch on his hands against Britain’s Matthew Macklin (28-3, 19 KO’s) on March 17th next year at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.
Id’s say this is a slight step down from Martinez’s last fight against Darren Barker from last October. Martinez fought almost at half speed in taking on Barker in the 11th round. Martinez looked bored against the scared looking Barker and just seemed to let the Brit hand around needlessly until the 11th when Martinez got serious on Barker too him out.
I don’t know why Macklin was chosen for Martinez given that Macklin lost his last fight against WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm by a 12 round decision last June. You would think that a fighter would have to at least won his last fight for him to get an important fight against a talent like Martinez.
I don’t care that Martinez no longer has the WBC belt after the World Boxing Council stripped him of the belt when he chose to fight Sergiy Dzinziruk last March. Martinez is clearly still the best fighter in the middleweight division by far.
As for Macklin, he’s ranked #3 by the WBC, but he’s not going anywhere in the division other than serving the purpose as a gate keeper and/or a fighter that challenges champions like Sturm and loses. Once Martinez is back as the champion in 2012, Macklin’s avenue to a world title will be closed, as least as far as the WBC is concerned.
I don’t see Macklin beating WBA middleweight regular champion Gennady Golovkin, and we already saw him lose to Sturm. WBO champion Dmitriy Pirog would have too much power and skill for Macklin. I don’t know, but maybe Macklin could beat IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale, if he could get a fight with him.
The problem is Macklin isn’t even ranked in the top 15 by the IBF, which kind of tells you all you need to know. I would probably take Macklin ages to get ranked and then move up high enough to fight Geale or whoever the champion is by the time Macklin gets up there.
I don’t see things going well for Macklin on March 17th. It’s going to be short, ugly and brutal and filled with pain. Martinez is going to light up Macklin like a Christmas tree with left hands to the head, and I doubt Macklin’s skin will have time to turn a bright fiery red like it did against Sturm before he hits the deck in a big heap.
Comments are closed.