Art Pelullo: "I Know Why Martinez Doesn't Want to Fight Pirog"

Mayweather or pacquiao would be a tougher fight for sexy sergio

 

No reward high risk. Pirog is an unknown who was actually supposed to lose vs Jacobs. His story is somewhat similar to Sergio's actually.


Sergio could soon become a superstar if he can somehow land a fight with Margo or Cotto or Pac/May and beat any of these guys.


Why is he gonna risk that potential superstardom fighting someone like Pirog? Especially a guy like Sergio who has been fighting for most of his career in the periphery of the boxing world in places like Argentina and Spain for pathetic purses like 10 k usd for instance.


Sergio worked his ass off just to reach the very modest level he's at now (though he likely lives comfortably, he isn't rich by any means). Everything was against him in the US. Versus Cintron, Martinez was supposed to be merely Kermit's opponent. Fact is he owned his ass yet fight was ruled a draw by US judges on HBO's payroll.


Against PW I, once again, he was merely supposed to be PW's opponent because a fight with Pavlik couldn't be arranged for PW. Judges were once again against him, esppecially the guy who gave every round to PW.


Against Pavlik, once again everything was against him. Since Sergio owned Pavlik so convincingly it was simply not possible for the judges to give Pavlik the fight. Had Pavlik made it even remotely competitive (which he really didn't), he would have been gifted the decision.


Sergio Martinez who speaks no English (he's trying to learn the language but apparently he's not very good at languages since he can't even speak a full sentence) has, against all odds and by sheer skill and determination, imposed himself upon the boxing world. After Barker he deserves mega-fights. Sadly though, he may not even get them.


Would it be fair to Sergio to risk all of this in order to fight unknown and dangerous Pirog for like 200k? I would feel very bad for Sergio if he were to lose such a fight and it wouldn't be fair to him. Sergio is not ducking Pirog cuz he's dangerous. He's ducking him cuz he brings no money to the table.


I don't think it's fair to criticize Serg for not wanting to fight Pirog. He's being smart about his career. He deserves 7 figure paydays. Pirog ain't getting him that.

 

In my book it's only a duck if you're avoiding someone who's ahead of you in the food chain.

 

Naah, it's a duck if the guy's right behind you too. A fighter has to be willing to accept at least some risk to his standing.

 

Current Sergio is only interested in taking on smaller fighters.

 

there's always a bunch of guys right behind you. If the guy behind you overtakes you against different opposition and you are still avoiding him... then it's ducking.

that's just the way I see it.

 

then why is he fighting Barker who brings even less money?

Martines got a 7-figure payday fighting unknown Dzinziruk. He gets a 7-figure payday fighting unknown Barker and yes he will get another 7-figure payday fighting unknown (and middleweight champ) Pirog.

Martinez calling out small welterweights for his next fight is the tried and tested Lou Dibella formula on promoting fights-feed his guy with smaller fighters from lower weight classes. He's done it with Jermain Taylor, he's done it with Andre Berto and he's gonna do it with Sergio

 

even if the guy is behind you in the food chain, it could still be a duck if he is the only logical fight for you and you don't want to fight him.

 

Pirog is a stiff that Martinez would toy with.
Things went south for Sergio when Kirkland and Lemieux both lost. Either one of the guys would have been next week's opponent. He's the middleweight champ at the wrong time.

 

Sergio is turning into a *****, begging to fight smaller fighters when White Chocolate is ready and waiting.

 

Martinez is a small MW and would likely get stopped by either Pirog or Golovkin. That's why Martinez will fight Dzinziruk and weak ass Barker, and talk about fighting Geale. I can't blame Dibella for having Sergio avoid those two. Interesting that Dibella told Quillen he could earn a fight with Sergio if he beat Pirog first. I like that fight alot. Quillen's a great fighter, but I'll pick Pirog by late stoppage. We'll see if Quillen and GB are scared of Pirog as Dimitry will be needing a US opponent soon.

Personally I think Dibella is messing up Martinez's career by having him fight in New Jersey all the time. He should be fighting in LA and Las Vegas where he would build up a better fan base. I imagine he'll fight Manfredo (after he beats Chavez) then Lee, then possibly Geale. Hopefully by then Pirog and Golovkin will finally be popular enough for a big fight with Sergio.

 

he didn't get stopped by Kelly, did he?

I'm sure he's fighting in AC because they are offering the biggest site fee. He builds his fan base by fighting on HBO, doesn't matter where the actual fight takes place in that sense. He's not a kid where you can slowly attempt to build a base over time. Put this fight in Vegas right now and he'd be fighting at the Palms in front of 1500 people.

Quillin is an excellent fighter and he hopefully will get his shot soon.

 

Maybe Pelullo should try actually promoting Pirog instead of acting like they're somehow owed a Martinez fight and doing nothing except whining whenever he chooses to fight someone else. He or Titov turned down an ESPN US date earlier this year, and they've managed to completely kill off any of the small heat they had after the Jacobs KO. They've done absolutely nothing to build his name aside from crying like entitled babies whenever Martinez chooses to fight someone else. While I think Pirog would have been a better opponent than Barker, the latter has fans who can travel, speaks English, and comes far cheaper to broke-for-the-year HBO than Pirog would.

Finally, I think you guys need to realize that Martinez and DiBella don't recognize Pirog's WBO belt at all and have no interest in competing for it any time in the near future. Chavez at least has a name and the WBC has so far treated them more reasonably than the WBO, which stripped Martinez immediately after he won the belt.