Sergio Martinez isn´t quite convinced Paul Williams wanted their rematch.
The middleweight champion from Argentina gets the impression Williams was coerced into meeting Martinez again, that he was eventually offered enough money to accept a fight he would ve just as soon skipped. Williams, quite naturally, makes it sound as if the Martinez rematch was the only fight he wanted after Kermit Cintron impersonated Michael Phelps against Williams on May 8 in Carson, Calif.
No matter who you believe or how they got here, perhaps the second most meaningful fight in boxing has been scheduled for Nov. 20 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. And during a year in which we ve had few Fight of the Year candidates and entirely too much attention paid to the mega fight that won t happen, we should be extremely grateful that Martinez and Williams will go at it again five nights before Thanksgiving.
Lou DiBella, Martinez s promoter, is just pleased he and Dan Goossen, Williams promoter, were able to work through countless issues to make sure Martinez (45 2 2, 24 KOs) and Williams (39 1, 27 KOs) didn t make the same mistakes Manny Pacquiao (51 3 2, 38 KOs) and Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41 0, 25 KOs) have made since December.
Boxing needs this fight, DiBella said during a press conference to promote it Thursday afternoon in Manhattan. Boxing needs guys like [Martinez and Williams]. I wake up in the morning and I wonder if I m working in a business that won t exist five years from now. … If we don t have more fights like this, we re headed right to the toilet bowl.
Williams and Martinez haven t transcended boxing the way Pacquiao and Mayweather have by becoming crossover stars that are either adored or detested by mainstream sports fans. But they regularly rank right behind Mayweather and Pacquiao on pound for pound lists, their breathtaking brawl Dec. 5 in Atlantic City was widely viewed by fans as one of the two most satisfying fights of 2009 and their rematch won t require an additional $50 or $60 to watch it.
The bout will be televised live on HBO s World Championship Boxing.
People come up at these press conferences and thank HBO for making fights, DiBella said. Well, HBO really made this fight.
Executives at HBO Sports felt that producing the Williams Martinez rematch was their second most important order of business this year, behind a fight that could become the most lucrative event in boxing history if it ever materializes.
A lot has been said recently by many of the writers in this room and a lot of the Internet writers about the fights that are not being made, said Kery Davis, HBO Sports senior vice president for programming. Certainly we re all disappointed that the No. 1 and No. 2 fighter didn t find their way to fighting on Nov. 13, in another fight that HBO really wanted. However, you can make an argument that this is the second biggest fight that can be made in our sport. Because as Lou DiBella said, you probably have, by all objective criteria, the No. 3 and No. 4, at worst No. 5, pound for pound fighters in the sport [in this fight].
And just like the mega fight that we re all missing, where you have the best welterweights in the sport, in this case specifically, you not only have the two best middleweights in the sport, but you can make an argument that you have the two best junior middleweights in the sport. So by every boxing criteria, this is a terrific fight. And we have one more benefit here we ve already seen the first one.
What we witnessed in their first fight was two highly skilled southpaws with above average power, better chins and the championship caliber conditioning to tee off on each other throughout 12 thrill filled rounds that probably should ve resulted in a draw.
Instead, two judges Lynne Carter (115 113) and Pierre Benoist (119 110) credited Williams with a victory. The third judge, Julie Lederman, scored a bout in which Williams and Martinez knocked each other down during the first round even (114 114).
Neither fighter owned a middleweight title that night, but Martinez has since out boxed former middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik so thoroughly that Pavlik (36 2, 32 KOs) declined to exercise the immediate rematch clause in the contract for their April 17 bout at Boardwalk Hall. The Oxnard, Calif., resident won Pavlik s WBC and WBO 160 pound titles, but he was stripped by the WBO before deciding whether to remain at middleweight or move back down to 154 pounds.
He ll make the first defense of his WBC title against Williams, but they ll compete at a catch weight of 157 pounds because Williams believes, despite his height advantage, that he s much more of a welterweight than he is a middleweight. Martinez made that concession to entice Williams into the bout, but DiBella expects Martinez to leave the ring Nov. 20 as one of the sport s most prominent power brokers.
This fight s everything, because at the end of this fight no one s going to be dictating anything to Team Martinez, DiBella said. Nothing. Nobody. Nobody s going to be telling us who to fight, what weight to fight at, no one.
The always agitated DiBella cannot comprehend, either, why Martinez isn t a bigger star after impressive performance against Pavlik, Williams and Cintron, all of which were broadcast by HBO since February 2009.
I don t understand why, frankly, his face isn t more all over the place than it already is, DiBella said. Not for anything, the guy is good looking. On top of it, he s probably the most exciting new face in boxing. Even though he s in his thirties, this is an athlete that didn t start until late and I think he s the most exciting guy in the ring right now.
Martinez seemingly is the anti Mayweather. While he isn t as fast handed or technically proficient as Mayweather, he s Hollywood handsome, humble, strongly supports causes that aid battered women, never says no to a fight and employs an entertaining style.
Maybe I can get to that point, Martinez said, to be the new face of boxing, because I take boxing very seriously inside and outside the ring. And that will be the difference between me and the others that are having problems.
I agree with you about the first fight, and had Sergio winning 115-113. The second fight is very interesting, but I don’t see how Paul can win. Sergio Martinez is not only one of the slickest and best counter-punchers in Boxing, but he is also a very smart fighter who can make adjustments when necessary. Paul is a fighter who puts the pressure on you by throwing a 1000 punches a fight, and while that may work against lesser fighters, it is the worse thing he can do against a guy like Martinez who will exploit the openings left open by throwing all those punches. Also (like you said) Paul is very predictable, he can’t adjust or switch up his gameplan if he isn’t able to do want he wants. I think at the very least Martinez can fight the same fight he did last time, and probably will do even better this time around en route to a UD victory.
November 23rd, 2010 at 10:28 am
I AGREE
August 6th, 2011 at 10:29 pm