Why are we giving Sergio a pass?

The problem is that he is the only star right now at 160
Sturm and Geale won't face him
Pirog and Golovkin still aren't big names right now
The guys @168 are too big
and Martinez is already 36 not much time left

 

Pirog is a bigger name than Barker.

 

Because he knocked Paul Williams the **** out ! :good

 

Fighting one of the Pirog/Golovkin/Macklin/Barker/N'Dam bunch of next gen MWs is NOT, I repeat NOT cherry picking, nor was Mayweather fighting the WBC WW champ for Chrissakes! Martinez fought P4Per WilliamsX2, World MW Champ Pavlik and top3 unbeaten LMW champ Dzinziruk back-to-back-to-back and now takes on the - again bigger and younger - Darren Barker. Sound a terrific run for me.

How about this: had you people picked Barker instead of Pirog and Martinez was fighting Dmitry tonight, you'd open the thead "Why are we giving Sergio a pass, he's fighting Pirog for Chrissakes" - boxing fans 2011.

 

clear Pirog is a bigger name but i think it's good to build up a Priog - Martinez fight a little more.

 

I'm not giving him a pass.

He deserves criticism for fighting Barker. He needed to fight Pirog.

 

Barker is just a bad pick but they sayd no one else was available or just didnt want to fight.
Sergio had a good run until Barker.
Pirog should be brought back to the states.

 

LOL, man I see any fighter that criticizes Pac gets blasted on here.

He's fighting 2 undefeated fighters in a row in a division that is not all that hot right now. All the SMW's are occupied at this point, and no one at 154 would dare try to fight him (and he can still make the weight).

The man fought Paul Williams when no one else wanted too (TWICE) and he also dethroned the lineal 160lb champ as a total underdog.

Give him a ****ing break. :deal

 

I think the deal with Pirog is this....... HBO apparently have devoted a large portion of their boxing budget to other fights, and have not left enough for Martinez. They can't afford to bring the likes of Pirog over to the States for Martinez, because Pirog, being a beltholder and stuff, will demand too much. That's why they've resorted to people like Darren Barker.

I think this is what BigBone - who's been following Martinez' situation closely - said in another thread.

However, I did read somewhere that Martinez is getting around $2 mill for this fight. If you ask me, $2 mill is a hell of a lot of money if you're not named Pacquiao, Mayweather or Cotto. So it appears HBO do have a bit of money spared for Martinez, in which case, maybe Martinez' team could have made more of an effort to bring Pirog over?

 

I have no problem with him calling out the other top P4Per's, he wants a big fight and a payday, and he deserves it. The guy is not that big and only moved up to mw to get fights, he could still easily make 154 and only weighed in at 158 for the Barker fight tonight. If his natural weight for fighting at his age is 154, fighting at 150 seems more logical than going all the way up to 168. 168 is a loaded division right now and it makes no sense to me for him to worry about that.

 

He is to small to fight the 168 guys look at Froch, Bute or Kessler they are huge and yes Manny and Floyd are too small for 160 too but at 154 it should be possible

 

As was pointed out, he tried to make fights for this date with three of the four beltholders in the division to no avail. His previous fight with Dzinziruk was forced on him by HBO through a take it or leave it deal; pretending that it was his choice is bull****. Beyond that, Dzinziruk was in the bottom of the ten of The Ring's 154 list, but Rafael, Rold, and the guy at badlefthook all considered (or in the case of the latter two) still consider him the best at the division. Beyond that, Dzinziruk provided a better challenge than most of the top middleweights at the time, and he never once complained about the weight or cited it as a reason for his loss.

Your assertion that he should just move up is utter nonsense; boxing doesn't work like that. If it was that easy, why didn't Manny just move up instead of fighting fossilized Mosley in his last fight or undersized Marquez? The welterweight division outside of the top two has been one of the weakest in boxing over the past 2-3 years, yet no one was calling for those two to move up when they weren't fighting each other. Also, I would love to hear what big fights are currently available at 168 right now. The fact of the matter is that absolutely everyone worth a damn has been locked up for the year. Finally, anyone who thinks the names/money available at 168 compare at all to the names/money at 147-154 is completely delusional.