If Martinez had beaten Cotto..?

Before the Cotto fight, Sergio said in an interview that he would be open to fighting GGG next. But as they say in Argentina, "Hablar no cuesta nada."

I believe Sergio had gotten careful in his opponent selection in the last few years. After a diet of Darren Barkers, Matthew Macklins and Martin Murrays, it's very hard for me to believe he would have ever gotten in the ring with GGG, a much more dangerous fighter.

On the other hand, I also believe Sergio believed he could beat Cotto. A few left hooks later though, maybe not so much. But I reject the knee alibi, which is just the rationalization used by posters on this site to explain their terrible predictions and overrating of Sergio all these years. Sure Sergio was 39, but his knees were good enough to win him rounds later in the fight. People need to remember that Cotto was the best boxer Sergio had ever fought, looked the best he has in his career, and had the right gameplan for this fight.

 

Martinez probably knew what shape he was in but was still confident he could beat cotto or maybe he thought he was fine who knows what he was thinking.cotto was supposed to be an easy fight for Martinez a guy who was the man at middleweight for years while cotto was supposed to be past his prime and fighting for the first time in the middleweight division everyone was calling cotto a blown up welter saying he would get knocked out.

 

Noone is calling Canelo over GGG a duck. Thats huge profile, huge money fight and everyone knows it.

Fighting Lee/Bradley over GGG or even Rubio is what is characterized as a duck.

Do you really think that Martinez was anywhere close to 100%? Or even close to 60%? Honestly I think you are over rating Cotto, I dont see how Cotto has a speck on Pavlik at 160 just for starters.

 

If he had gotten by Miguel , I highly doubt he would have quickly jumped back in there with GGG .

Probably would have taken another fighter with a low KO ratio back in Argentina .

 

True, triangle doesnt really work - but nonetheless I find it hard to believe a healthy Martinez would have taken those flush shots and taken them as hard as he did. No balance/stability not only affects your power which people forget (Martinez couldnt bang at all that night, you could see it from his movement/biomechanics) but also even if you get hit, lets you react and roll with punches.

I guess I just dont understand how people can look at Martinez, not just relative to Cotto but actually LOOK at him and fathom how beating that Martinez makes Cotto a beast.

As for not wanting to lose before Canelo... well.. yeah.

Not wanting to risk a loss before a fight that doesnt happen for about a year after taking a belt/lineal is what is typically classified as ducking. Would I do the same were I Cotto? Sure. Its not like I dont understand, but he is still ducking tough fights until he gets the money guy.

 

as you get older its harder to recover from injuries like Martinez suffered to his knees and the first thing an aging fighter loses are speed and reflexes two key parts of Martinez's style.I think it was a combination of age and injury.like with roy jones jr Martinez fell off quickly once he started aging and could no longer keep his athletic style.

 

No disrespect to Martinez because the guy was fearless when he was at his best .



It just become evident that he is now a handicapped fighter and can no longer perform to his best potential now .

That's boxing , it happens .

We all respect Martinez .

 

No he would of stayed in active for as long as possible then picked a cherry

 

cotto has been in with everybody except golovkin and now that ggg is standing in front of him cotto is doing everything he can to avoid ggg.cotto is trying to fight a welterweight in tim bradley or andy lee on ppv ffs that's bull****.