Before flipping out, stop and think about it..........Martinez vs. Taylor

I mean it.

Stop, take a breath, and mull it over.

That means you, barracuda. And you. Take it easy.

Suppress your emotions, and let's work through this rationally, OK?

Now, the first thing that will spring to a lot of people's minds is "Taylor has lost four of his last five and suffered three nasty knockouts!!! And you want him to challenge the lineal middleweight champion???"

The answer is, yes. Short of a Williams rematch, this is perhaps the most compelling and competitive fight available for Martinez.

"But Pavlik beat Taylor and Martinez beat Pavlik!"

Yeah, whatever. Styles make fights.

"Taylor needs time off! He got his brains rattled!"

Yeah. He went chasing the big boys, where the money was at 168, after Pavlik took his title and tied it extra tight around his waist, demonstrating that he had Jermain's #. There was simply no point in sticking around at 160, as the top prize had been seized by someone who wasn't giving it back. I don't buy that Taylor had problems making weight. His stamina/late fading issues didn't go away when he moved up - speaking to a problem with his training habits, not being drained. He wasn't a massive framed MW (and he was a small-fry SMW). It was a business move, and one that unfortunately didn't pay off as he faced up with some big punchers at a higher than optimal weight.

He didn't retire after getting KTFO by Abraham. Hell, he initially wanted to tough it out and stay in the tournament until those close to him talked him out of it. He stated a desire to ultimately return to the ring in any event. That return should be in the division where he made history - not the one where he spent the most time horizontal.

By the time Sergio is ready to make a defense (we'll say sometime in the summer...maybe August?) Jermain will have had about ten months to lick his wounds - and wounded pride - and get himself back in fighting shape physically and mentally.

If Jermain can cut back down "the right way", as his erstwhile trainer Emanuel Steward is fond of advocating - and make a serious commitment to revamping his conditioning regimen (especially necessary against the usually iron-hewn Martinez) this could be a good match-up. Two guys with low lead hands (but decent defensive skill), blazing handspeed, and no qualms about mixing it up? Yeah, I'll take it.

For Martinez - it's a good gamble. Taylor's lost a bunch lately, and Martinez is riding high on confidence...if he can take it to Jermain early and often, beating him to the punch en route to a comfortable decision (or even a stoppage on cuts) - he'll have beaten the reigning middleweight champ and his immediate predecessor...both bigger men he'd have been told he had no business in the ring with a couple of years ago. Regardless of the opponent's recent history, on paper that is like a massive dose of steroids for what' shaping up already to be a pretty brawny legacy. High reward for moderate risk for Martinez.

For Taylor - it's an excellent gamble. A naturally smaller man, not really a threat to knock him out, whose main attribute is speed (which fire he can fight with his own). Taylor may have been made to look bad against the last naturally smaller man, not really a threat to knock him out, whose main attribute was speed (Spinks) - but he did get the win. And Spinks is far more of a spoiler than Martinez, who likes to go to war (albeit craftily), take some rounds off, and go back to war. It's a winnable fight. And imagine the reward? Bouncing back from being universally written off, and reclaiming his middleweight crown? That would be the stuff of legend. Ironically, Jermain would get all the credit in the world for such a win...when so many criticisms were leveled at him for picking on smaller non-punchers during his reign.

Martinez may have actually done Taylor a huge favor here, in dethroning his old nemesis for him.

I say make it.

 

Throw the win-loss record out - he deserves all the benefit of the doubt in the world, IMO, for the bravery he's shown the last few years.

He was a ****hair away from taking big bad Froch's virginity.

He's only looked bad once - against Abraham. The former undisputed middleweight champion of the world deserves an opportunity to acquit himself against the new one. IMO.

 

You wanna fight about it??? :bbb

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Sorry Reg, I call bull on both counts.

Williams is a legit MW in my view (for instance - Mosley is a better welterweight than Williams...but I wouldn't bet on him moving up and obliterating a natural MW...not even Andy Kolle).

Martinez did not appear to be outsized against Williams.

Pavlik is certainly a legit MW...and probably belongs at 168.

Martinez did not appear to be outsized against Pavlik.

He ain't stretching it. Welcome home, Maravilla.

As for Taylor...yeah, there was all that talk of him having trouble coming in at the limit, and the rematch with Pavlik was at a catchweight...but come on. Look at the man. He isn't a super middleweight. Abraham's shorter but he's a tank (and has retained his power) - the transition makes sense for him. For Taylor? It just means he's going to be a little bit slower and facing guys much stronger than he is. He never blew up Ricky Hatton style between fights...and his frame is not that of a man who can't make middleweight. That, IMO, was an excuse. Something that could be corrected with a good team surrounding him...a new trainer, new nutritionist, new conditioning coach.

 

Sure but I can question the lines that we were fed about a 6'1" athlete in his late twenties with no pattern of blowing up like a Fatton between training camps suddenly having trouble making his career weight in the middle of his reign.

Nothing wrong with a healthy dose of skepticism. The rest, admittedly, is me filling in the blanks with conjecture. It all does fit, though. Some excuse needed to be produced to explain the second-half fades...and to pave the way to get the hell out of Dodge after Pavlik asserted his implacable dominance (at least in the styles match-up with Jermain) at MW.