Sergio Martínez (boxer)
Sergio Gabriel Martínez | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Sergio Gabriel Martinez 21 February 1975 |
| Nationality |  Argentine |
| Other names | "Maravilla" (Wonder) |
| Statistics | |
| Weight(s) | Middleweight Light middleweight Welterweight |
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
| Reach | 75 in (191 cm) |
| Stance | Southpaw |
| Boxing record | |
| Total fights | 52 |
| Wins | 48 |
| Wins by KO | 27 |
| Losses | 2 |
| Draws | 2 |
| No contests | 0 |
Sergio Gabriel Martínez (born 21 February 1975 in Avellaneda, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Argentine professional boxer[1] and the current The Ring Middleweight Champion.[2]
He is the former WBC & WBO Middleweight Champion[3][4] and recipient of the WBC Diamond belt.[5]
Martinez was previously in the light middleweight division, where he held the WBC light middleweight title (Interim then elevated to full status champion), as well as the WBC Latino title .[6][7] Also, he has competed in the welterweight division, where he held the WBO Latino title.[8]
Martínez is currently rated as the number three pound for pound best boxer in the world by most sporting news and boxing websites, including The Ring,[9] Sports Illustrated,[10] ESPN,[11] and Yahoo! Sports.[12] In 2010, Martínez received The Ring and BWAA "Fighter of the Year" and The Ring "Knockout of the Year" awards respectively.
Early life
Sergio Martinez was born on February 21, 1975 in Avellaneda to parents Hugo Alberto Martinez and Susana Papadopoulou. Shortly afterwards the family relocated to the nearby city of Quilmes, which is also in the Buenos Aires Province. His father worked as a construction worker and metal worker, a trade which Sergio Martinez joined along with his two brothers, Sebastian and Hugo Jr.. Before boxing Martinez was a keen cyclist and football player, and it was not until 1995 that he decided he would become a boxer. After being trained by his uncle, Ruben Paniagua, Martinez began boxing as an amateur and compiled a record of 39-2 (39 wins to 2 losses), the losses came by way of majority decision and knock-out. His boxing career suffered a major setback in August 1996 when he broke his left hand, forcing him out of the sport for a year.[13] Although he considered competing for Argentina at the 2000 Olympics, he decided that he was too old to wait the two and a half years and chose to turn professional in December 1997.[14]
Professional career
Early years in Argentina
Martínez, at the age of 22, had his first professional fight on December 27, 1997 in Ituzaingo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The opponent for his professional debut, Cristian Marcelo Vivas, was disqualified in the second round, giving Martínez his first win. Martínez fought the first 17 fights of his career in his native Argentina, compiling a record of 16-0-1. The only blemish on his record at this point occurred in his third fight, a draw against Mario Javier Nieva over four rounds. Martinez rematched Nieva four months later and won a six-round unanimous decision.[15]
After facing a relatively low level of opposition for his first 17 fights in Argentina, Martínez fought overseas for the first time, travelling to the United States to face Antonio Margarito. The fight took place on February 19, 2000 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The contest started badly for Martínez as Margarito scored a knockdown in the first round. Although Martínez recovered and had some success in the early rounds, he was hurt by a number of punches in round seven leading to a stoppage by the referee, thus handing Martínez his first loss. Following the Margarito fight, Martinez returned to Argentina and fought eight times, all victories, from April 2000 – February 2002. During this run of fights he won the Argentina welterweight title after outpointing Javier Alejandro Blanco, he successfully defended the title once, knocking out Sergio Ernesto Acuna in the seventh round, before being stripped of the title.[15]
Relocation to Spain
After his final fight in Argentina, a February 2002 win over Francisco Mora, Martinez decided to relocate to Spain. It was there that he began his partnership with his current trainer Gabriel Sarmiento who worked out of a gym in Azuqueca de Henares. During his time in Spain Martinez also worked jobs such as; nightclub bouncer, dishwasher, construction worker and did modelling jobs for Adidas and Nike. From April 2002 – May 2003 he fought four times in Spain, all eight-round fights that he won against weak opposition, two of his opponents had lost their last six fights. This was to change in his next fight however, as he took on Richard Williams in England for the lightly regarded IBO light-middleweight title. Martinez, who entered the ring as an underdog, having had only eight days preparation,[14][16] won a unanimous decision. Although Williams scored knock-downs in the second and eleventh rounds, he was close to being stopped in the final round and the scorecards were heavily in Martinez's favour.[17] He defended the IBO title twice in the United Kingdom; a twelfth round knock-out victory of Adrian Stone in Bristol was followed by a rematch against Williams in Belfast, on this occasion Williams was stopped in the ninth round. Over the next two and a half years, Martinez won seven fights in a row back in Spain, six of which were against boxers who had losing records.[15]
Light Middleweight
Martínez claimed the interim WBC Light Middleweight title on October 4, 2008, beating Alex Bunema via an eighth round retirement.[15] On February 14, 2009 Martinez fought to a majority draw against Puerto Rican Kermit Cintron. The fight was controversial for a number of reasons; during the seventh round Martínez knocked Cintron down with a clean left hand shot, the referee reached the count of ten and waved the fight off. However, this was disputed by Cintron, who claimed that the knockdown was a result of a headbutt. Cintron's protestations led to the referee overturning his decision and the fight continued. The fight went the twelve round distance and the scorecards revealed a draw, many ringside observers felt that the decision was a robbery and that Martínez easily outboxed Cintron and should have gained the victory.[18]
On May 21, 2009, WBC Light Middleweight champion Vernon Forrest was stripped of his title due to a rib injury that would leave him out of action indefinitely. Because of the injury and his inability to fight Sergio Martínez, Martínez's interim title was upgraded to full WBC Title status.[19]
Middleweight
On December 5, 2009 Martínez fought Paul Williams in a non-title Middleweight bout at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall. Both boxers traded knockdowns in an opening round of a contest that was described as a fight of the year candidate.[20] The next two rounds were heavily in Martínez's favor as he hit Williams with barrages of counter punches. Rounds 4-7 showed Williams coming back effectively landing hard lefts to the head of Martínez. In rounds 8-11 Martínez again confused Williams by using different varieties of punches including straight lead lefts to the body followed by right hooks to the head and straight lefts to the face. The 12th and final round showed much fatigue in Martínez and Williams but the fighters fought through to the end. Williams won a close majority decision over Martínez with the judges scoring: Pierre Benoist 119-110 for Williams, Lynn Carter 115-113 for Williams and Julie Lederman 114-114. Afterward both fighters expressed interest in a possible rematch.[21]
After an impressive performance against Paul Williams, Sergio Martínez stayed at Middleweight and challenged the World Champion Kelly Pavlik. The fight took place in Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall on April 17, 2010. Martínez defeated Pavlik via unanimous decision in a bout which saw Martínez overcome an early knockdown to subsequently dominate the late rounds. Pavlik had cuts above both eyes for several rounds which did not stop bleeding; he said they affected his vision and performance.[22] Although there was a rematch clause in the contract, Pavlik chose not to enforce it, stating his desire to move up in weight.[23]
The victory over Pavlik earned Martínez the Middleweight Championship of the WBC, The Ring and the WBO.
With Martínez winning the Middleweight championship, he was required to make some decisions regarding his conflicting WBC Super Welterweight (Light Middleweight) title. The sanctioning organizations for boxing recognize that boxers may choose to move up or down in the weight categories, yet they also wish to make all championship belts available to challenge. As such, their rules prohibit a fighter from simultaneously holding belts in multiple divisions. This prohibition includes holding a title with one sanctioning organization while also holding a title in a different weight class with a different organization. Eight weeks after the Pavlik fight, when Martínez failed to announce a preference to be a Super Welterweight or a Middleweight champion (the WBO rules allow ten days to decide), the WBO stripped him of their Middleweight title.[24] A week later, Martínez did inform the WBC that he was willing to vacate their Super Welterweight title and maintain his WBC Middleweight belt.[25]
The Rematch
On November 20, 2010, Sergio got a chance to avenge his loss to Williams. Martínez was ranked fourth pound for pound, while Willams was No. 3. Many speculated that this would be a fight of the year candidate. Approximately one minute into the second round, Martínez knocked Williams out with an over-the-top left hand to retain his title. The knockout was called by many as the knockout of the year. Williams stated to Max Kellerman after the fight, "He caught me with a punch I did not see."
Martínez vs Dzinziruk
Sergio Martínez fought previously undefeated Sergiy Dzindziruk on March 12, 2011 at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket, winning by TKO in 8 rounds. Dzindziruk, the WBO light middlweight champion, was knocked down five times in the fight.[26]
Martínez vs Barker
Martínez fought undefeated EBU Middleweight Champion Darren Barker on October 1 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
Many boxing analysts and experts said that Darren Barker has the skills and ring generalship to one day become a champion, but that his skills were not perfected enough to do anything against Martinez. The first few rounds showed that Barker was actually able to make Martinez uncomfortable in the ring and give him more trouble than expected. Throughout the fight Barker consistently gave Martienz problems, while never hurting him or really ever winning any of the rounds he gave Martinez a challenge by coming in but not giving much offence to let Martinez counter or land anything clean. He also managed to get Martinez's nose to bleed early in the rounds by an upper cut. Martinez however fought through the difficulty and eventually found openings which led to knocking him out in the 11th round by a right hook. The WBC has declared Martinez to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, on an unknown date.
Controversy with the WBC and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
In January 2012, Martínez stated that José Sulaimán and the WBC promised him a fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., after Martinez ceded his WBC Middleweight belt in order that Chavez could become the champion. Martinez acknowledged his dissapointment with the WBC and stated that “There is no greatest coward than Chavez, followed by Roach and Arum. The boxing that Arum and Chavez are doing is a lie”. Martinez resigned his WBC Diamond belt.
Fighting style
A southpaw, Martinez is known as a fast and athletic fighter and his style has been described as "crowd-pleasing"[27] and, because of his tendency to fight with his hands down when he is out of range of his opponent, "arrogant".[28] One of Martinez's best weapons is his right hook, which he says he developed when he injured his left hand during his amateur career.[16]
Professional boxing record
References
- ^ "Sergio Gabriel Martinez - Boxer". Boxrec.com. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
- ^ "Boxing Ratings | RingTV". Ringtv.craveonline.com. 2011-11-07. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
- ^ "BoxRec Boxing Records". Boxrec.com. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
- ^ "BoxRec Boxing Records". Boxrec.com. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
- ^ "Middleweight". Wbcboxing.com. 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
- ^ "BoxRec Boxing Records". Boxrec.com. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
- ^ "BoxRec Boxing Records". Boxrec.com. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
- ^ "BoxRec Boxing Records". Boxrec.com. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
- ^ "Boxing Ratings | RingTV". Ringtv.craveonline.com. 2011-11-07. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
- ^ "Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather top latest pound-for-pound ratings - SI.com - Boxing". Sportsillustrated.cnn.com. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
- ^ "Ranking top pound-for-pound boxers (Nos. 1-3) - ESPN". Sports.espn.go.com. 2011-07-05. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
- ^ Iole, Kevin. "Rankings: Heavyweight isn't deadweight - Boxing - Yahoo! Sports". Sports.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
- ^ "Sergio Martinez Part One: A King Goes in Search of his Crown". Dog House Boxing. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
- ^ a b "Sergio Martinez: Better late than never". The Ring. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
- ^ a b c d Boxrec. "Sergio Gabriel Martinez". Boxrec Fighter Page. Retrieved 26 January 2008.
- ^ a b "Sergio Martinez Part Two: The General Crowns his King". The Ring. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
- ^ "Boxing: Brodie defies eye damage to overpower Argentinian opponent". The Independent. Retrieved 2011-09-28.
- ^ "Martinez robbed of win against Cintron". ESPN. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
- ^ "Martinez now jr. middleweight champ". ESPN. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
- ^ "Paul Williams Edges Sergio Martínez in Slugfest!". About.com: Boxing, Andrew's Boxing Blog. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
- ^ "Williams wins southpaw slugfest". ESPN. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
- ^ "Martinez proves his worth against Pavlik". ESPN. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
- ^ "Pavlik to move up in weight". ESPN. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
- ^ "WBO strips Martinez of title". ESPN. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
- ^ "Martinez stays at middleweight". ESPN. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
- ^ "Boxing - Martinez KOs Dzinziruk". Fightnews.com. 2011-03-12. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
- ^ "Sergio Martinez v Sergiy Dzinziruk preview". Crunch Sports. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
- ^ "Final Thoughts on Pavlik-Martinez". Bad Left Hook. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
- ^ "Sergio Gabriel Martínez Professional boxing record". BoxRec.com.
External links
- Boxing record for Sergio Martínez from BoxRec (registration required)