Campeon Maravilla Martinez, the best LMW and MW on the planet - what a great story!

Best post I've read for a while on ESB.

Sergio Martinez - the new middleweight champion come fight night

 

A simple copy and paste job should suffice as a response to Big Bone nut hugging a guy who is 0-1-1 against world class opposition.

As an amatuer Pavlik amassed a record of 89-9, won multiple national titles, and made the Olympic Trials at a mere 17 years of age. He was eventually eliminated by Jermain Taylor. JT went on to win a bronze medal in the 2000 Olympics, and Pavlik signed with Top Rank and fought his first pro fight that year.

The experience gap between Pavlik and Martinez is to enormous to ignore. Pavlik won his first national title at 147 right around the same time Martinez started boxing!

The first time Martinez tried to take a step up in class he got obliterated by Margarito, and then all but disappeared for nearly 9 years. The first time Pavlik stepped up in class he scored consecutive stoppage wins over Zuniga, McKart, Zertuche, Miranda, and Jermain Taylor. Sergio's big claims to fame consist of a controversial draw with Cintron, and a loss to Williams; both of whom are natural welterweights. Pavlik ran right over two guys who were the biggest and best middleweights in the world at fight time. The difference in experience and class between these two ought to be obvious.

Various threads on ESB, and many interent articles make it clear that the difference is not obvious to most people, so I hope to help a few people shed their blinders, and take a realistic look at the upcoming Pavlik/Martinez fight.

The first and most obvious thing is Martinez's general lack of sound fundamentals. For example he does not keep his hands up or place his hands in a proper defensive position when he is under attack and getting tagged. Pavlik will attack, and Martinez will get tagged.

On the same note, Martinez does occassioanally keep his hands up near his chin, but he often drops them while he is still in his opponents effective firing range, and gets hit. That is definitely not a good idea when Pavlik is your opponent.

The idea that such a highly regarded fighter makes the mistakes I've seen Martinez make is actually a bit shocking. His jab is often almost humorous. He frequently sticks his right hand out in the middle of nowhere, and just sort of waves it around aimlessly, and then he paws, pushes, and telegraphs his jab. This leaves Martinez with little means of keeping Pavlik off of him. It also presents one more opportunity for Pavlik to hit Martinez with right hand bombs.

And speaking of right hands, Martinez leaves himself open to hard right hands so much of the time one has to wonder if he even knows how to defend against a good right hand. If Cintron and Williams can blast Martinez with right hands, trust me, Pavlik will hit him more times with bigger right hands.

Martinez spends so much time show boating and taunting his opponents that I honestly believe that taking away his ability to do that would take him way out of his comfort zone. Pavlik will stay right in Sergio's grill, force him to fight, and force him to keep his hands up, or get blasted.

Martinez loves to rush in and throw a lead left. However, he tends to telegrah what he is doing, and he comes straight in. If he does that against Pavlik, he'll get caught with a really brutal jab/right-hand nearly everytime.

In my opinion Sergio's best punch is his right hook. However, he does not do a great job of setting it up. He usually just rushes in with his face hanging out, and throws. This is a very predictable pattern. If Martinez is coming in from your left side, he will throw a right hook. Look for KP to take one short step to his own right, throw a short overhand right followed by a left uppercut, and then take a step back and hit a stunned Martinez with a good 1-2. I hate to be so specific in this type of post, but I honestly believe this might be the show stopper.

Martinez spends a god awful amount of time circling the wrong way. For a guy who is proned to getting hit with right hands circling directly into a Pavlik lead right is probably a very bad idea.

Pavlik's flaws have been cussed and discussed on ESB ad nauseum. Most people seem to literally have blinders on when it comes to Martinez's flaws. They are many, and they are the kind of flaws that get fighters knocked the **** out by Kelly Pavlik. The round depends a great deal on how aggressive Martinez is. If he is as aggresive as he was with Cintron and/or Williams, he won't see the end of eight.

 

I don't think anyone is taking sergio lightly or not giving him credit. He was robbed by cintron clearly and gave Paul Williams a really tough fight.

I personally think if he doesn't get caught with a big pavlik right he is going to UD him.

 

I don't believe he was denied by the judges against Williams. He came up short, but he deserves the shot against Pavlik. He's a good fighter, exciting to watch. I look forward to seeing him fight on HBO again.

 

I don't know whats up with booradley, clearly just destroyed any credit due to Pavlik if he were to beat Martinez.

Martinez is a good fighter, a great defense by Pavlik. Beating him deserves a big nod in a book.

 

Oh Please...


Lay off Booradley...


He's a good guy to laugh at. Even if he does have the IQ of a cinderblock.

 

So true.

One of the most disgusting decisions in a while.

BigBone made a very true post about an exciting fighter, who clearly hasn't got the attention, glory and money he should have got from boxing.

I don't understand why BB's post warrants some kind of 'counter-response'.

 

I guess that's why, even to this day, you will never see me talking **** about Margarito, Quintana, Winky Wright, and especially Maravilla. Doesn't make sense...

But then again, this is Booradley "The Lyin King" we're talking about. He isn't exactly known for his thinking prowess.

 

MARTINEZ GREAT POST BRO

 

I've said all along I would rate a win over Martnez as KP's 4th best win. Dead even with Zuniga, but clearly a lesser win than Taylor X 2, and Miranda. I've said nothing new on this thread. The real problem here is not with me. It's with all the people who turned Martinez into a Pernell Whitaker/Sonny Liston hybrid. Reality is that the man has never won a fight against a world class or opponent. He's just a guy who looks good losing.

 

You know I pick Pavlik to win this fight.

You also know that if Martinez happens to win it somehow, what you just posted will make you look foolish, eh?

 

Small nit BB. I've watched the Cintron fight a couple times lately and I'm pretty sure the ref decided after counting to ten and waving the fight off that somehow he had evidence that Cintron beat the count. With no replay I have NO idea how he decided that. I'm pretty sure that is what the HBO team reported. If he ruled it a head butt though the KD would be voided and should be reflected in the score cards, no?