Has anyone hit the wall faster that Sergio Martinez?

chavez jr is hardly his best win. most overrated, actually.

 

I saw the downfall coming for a while with Sergio. I think everyone just truly undervalued the significance of the Martin Murray bout (dropped once, should have been twice, and lost on my scorecard to an unspectacular fighter). EDIT: Myself included.

Everyone seemed to forget that Sergio was like 36 when he first won the title. He has been in several grueling fights which always ages fighters. He had faced several injuries before the Murray fight. He had shown a minor slow down between winning the title and his second-third-ish title defenses well before the Chavez fight. I've always also felt his chin was the weakest element of his game all through his title reign.

 

Yep.

At the very very best Chavez Jr. is his third best win behind Paul Williams and Kelly Pavlik... I would argue that it is debatable that Sergio's destruction of Dzinziruk (then undefeated and a top 3 JMW) moving up in weight was equally impressive a victory.

 

People claim Mike Tyson was washed up at 20 years old or whatever. Listen Teddy Atlas has explained what happend numerous times. Tyson just was mentally weak and had a bully mentality so he couldn't handle adversity when an opponent stood up to him

 

:think Against Jr, Martinez looked to be at his physical peak yet against Dzinziruk he showed his boxing ability.

For me, Dzinziruk was the better win. In hindsight i am not surprised that Jr knocked him down but otherwise got dominated. Yet i thought Dzinziruk should have been competitive like Barker ended up being.
On paper, Dzinziruk and Barker should have changed places.

P. Williams 2
Pavlik
Dzinziruk
Chavez Jr
Barker
Macklin
Murray
Cintron
R. Williams 2
Bunema

To many it seems that Barker is ranked too high but its my list and i rate Barker very highly.

 

Yup.

Honestly Dzin, Jr, Barker, and Macklin are all debatable. I think there are tiers to an obvious breakdown of the quality of his title fight victories:

--- Tier 1 ---
Williams II
Pavlik
--- Tier 2 ---
Dzinziruk
Chavez Jr.
--- Tier 3 ---
Macklin
Barker
--- Tier 4 ---
Murray


I've always had it that way and haven't thought about reassessing until now. Since their fights with Sergio, Macklin has looked horrible while Barker went on to beat Geale (who I am high on) to win a title before getting KO'd himself... I think you may be right. I think the pendulum has swung to Barker over Macklin.

 

Ricky Hatton

 

According to some people here, you can be COMPLETELY shot to **** at the age of 30 years old.

Like ali.

Or, even better, completely shot to **** at the age of.... 20 years old.

"Mike Tyson prime lasted from 16 to 18".

 

Jeff Fenech.

 

Antonio Margarito looked like he hit the wall pretty quickly after beating Cotto. The hand wrap excuse is usually brought up to explain why he suddenly wasn't as effective but that doesn't really explain why his hand and foot speed (no matter how limited it was to begin with in your opinion) dropped off dramatically.

 

Big fan of Sergio... But you could tell after the Chavez fight his body broke down, in 2 years after that fight he had 1 so-so fight against Murray before the cotto fight with 2 major knee surgeries
Hindsight it's a wonderful thing and the writing was on the wall really
The Martinez that went through Williams and pavlik crushes cotto

 

Well when you aren't fighting the best opposition already at your weight class, it can seem to have suddenly crept up on a boxer when he finally faces someone with a little talent. In Martinez situation, he had really already lost to Murray, but got a gift. Cotto just got rid of Murray's left overs.

Martinez was always a little over rated to me at middleweight. His best wins were against a smaller 147/154 pounder in Paul Williams, and the Pavlik, that Hopkins had previously made his personal cabin boy. Guys like Dzinziruk,(another smaller man), Barker, Macklin, Chavez Jr. etc. wouldn't have been top 10 guys at 160 when Hopkins was in his prime. Martinez fought in a really weak 160 pound division, and still wouldn't fight the best available opponents.

 

Vargas post-Trinidad comes to mind...... El Feroz was basically ruined after getting wrecked by Tito. Actually Trinidad did the same thing to David Reid, career in toilet.

 

Dominick Guinn

One of the best prospects out there before getting sparked by Monte Barrett and was never able to win a notable fight again

 

I'm surprised that you actually put the Chavez W in a tier higher than either Macklin or Barker, to be honest.