Martinez: "If Ward wants to meet me at 164 pounds and the money is right..."

Fair dinkums. Martinez is willing to go up or down. Even at 160, he looks quality but he doesn't look like a huge guy. His past few opponents have all been much taller and rangier than him. Even Barker is taller and maybe rangier.

 

I feel your situation, Sergio, I really do. But you're a guy who is two divisions above Pacweather, whereas Ward and the rest are only one division above you. Them [Pacweather] moving up to face you, is actually more of a burden than you having to move up to face the super middleweights. Yes, I know you're proposing a catchweight of 154 pounds, but considering Pacquiao has failed to weigh above 148 even on fight night, it will still be a massive ask for him to then go another 6 pounds against a guy who, in all probability, will hardly even be affected in coming down to 154, and will rehydrate back up to a massive, strong, quick 168 on fight night. That's 20 pounds Pacquiao will be giving up!!

 

Both Pac and Mayweather have held world titles at light middleweight. Or claim to have in Pacs case....

 

And both guys gave them up immediately, and went back to the weight they belong to. We don't see Pacquiao and Mayweather still hanging around at 154 and claiming to be current champions there.

 

I don't see Mayweather being a current anything TBH.

 

Didn't deter Napoles from jumping two divisions to face Monzon.

If either guy feels they are up to the challenge, they should move up and take it on IMO. Pac is obviously up for some fairly stern tests, but neither him nor Floyd are really up for anything too taxing as they wind down their careers IMO.

 

True that, Moe. If Pac and May are up for this challenge, then massive respects to them. But they can't exactly be blamed if they're not. Especially by Sergio, who himself is not keen on doing what he's asking them to do.

 

I think the problem Martinez has is that there's nobody in the division who seems to want to put their mark on it and clear it out.

Sturm and Chavez seem content to hide behind titles, Pirog ought to be making moves soon and Golovkin is being matched cautiously unfortunately.

In some divisions we're seeing the best fighting the best consistently, 140 and 168 especially, in part forced by TV and partially due to the fighters themselves. In others there's plenty of fake/manufactured/BS champions being backed by TV.

Hopefully the new regime at HBO will stick two fingers up at Al Haymon and Schaefer and sort the mess out to a degree.

 

I don't think theres any blaming due or going on. Martinez seems to be just saying "I can do 154 if you are interested" to a couple of welterweights.

 

Martinez has actually been pretty vocal in his criticism of Pacquiao.

“Manny Pacquiao is working his business by picking boxers he knows he can beat and are pretty close to retirement. He is picking guys that are easy to beat so when you do this, it isn’t hard to be pound-for-pound and, if we fought I would beat him by knock out.”

His trainer and promoter have also said a few things. It's certainly not a case of "Hey, Manny, if you ever fancy a fight at 154, give us a shout :thumbsup".

Nope. It's more of a "I'm challenging you at 154. Stop ducking me! :deal"

 

I've also heard him say Pac as too small for him....which I agree with. Are those last 2 quotes real or made up?

Mayweather however has been a welterweight for 5-6 years and has held a world title at 154 so I don't think theres that big a stretch for a career light middleweight to want to fight him at 154lbs.

 

Why did you bother to edit your post and make those made up quotes bold?

 

Those last two quotes are made up just to make a point. But the first one, where he accuses Pac of picking convenient fights and that he [Sergio] would knock him out, is real.

Ok, fair enough, it's not that outrageous to ask Mayweather to meet him there. But if you look back at all of Sergio's call-outs, he's directed most of them towards Pac. He's more inclined to say respectful things about Mayweather. He's got a "Hey, if you're up for it" attitude towards him, but a "Quit ducking me!" feeling towards Pac.

That's the perception that I have, anyway.