Freddie Roach was right. Great athlete, with no boxing skills

Before I get attacked: Yes Martinez was a great champion, with a great resume and a great run holding his championship, but the guy seriously lacks boxing ability. No inside game (at all), very few combos, rarely any defense (besides the moving from opponent) and absolutely no uppercut. He has looked very amateurish through out his career, but his athletic ability has propelled him above others

You need a good uppercut against cotto and I honestly don't remember martinez even throwing at least one. And to top it all off, his knee was gone and he is really old. Freddie is a smart coach

 

He has some boxing skills. Cotto is more fundamental.

 

Of course he has some boxing skills. Very amateurish habits he has had throughout his career.

As a boxing coach watching someone without knowing his abilities beforehand, one would frown upon his style. No coach would allow an unproven fighter to fight like the way he does. And no coach would teach someone to fight like that.

 

How many uppercuts did he throw and land on Williams, Pavlik and Chavez Jr.?

 

:good

 

Yep. IMO, Cotto has some of the best fundamentals that I have ever seen.

He has them down to a tee.

 

My point. The guy has always fought missing key elements that are fundamental in boxing.

I know not every boxer throws a good upper, but most elite fighters are well rounded schooled boxers, he wasn't

 

Yep. The guy has always had flaws that could be exploited. I always thought he was a bit over-rated tbh.

 

And where the hell was his body punching ? There was also like you said very little combos ..But his hand speed is and his movement is what helped him.Once those legs start to go people see the results.

 

Nothing was learned about Martinez based on this fight. Other than the fact that his body can no longer fight. His knees are shot.

The results of this fight have nothing to do with boxing skills. I suspect Roach had the inside line of Martinez' condition prior to signing Cotto to this fight. Were Martinez' workouts public? Does anyone know about this?

 

He tried a few left uppercuts but they were basically worthless.

The point of an uppercut is to bend your knees and torque it.

He never planted his feet or stopped to smell roses.

 

I think the only public work outs were the ones they showed on 24/7 but I could be wrong

 

Fully agree

 

True. But I honestly think, even before this fight, he exhibited a lack of arsenal

 

Sergio did have some ring smarts if you see his past fights he'd use to jab alot to the body and since most of his opponents were bigger, taller, didn't really need the uppercut badly as in this fight. But even with a decent boxing IQ he had the legs of a 75yr old and explosiveness he had neither. Cotto simply at his best Sergio at his worst.