Sergio Martinez: 'I challenge Pacquiao for his 154lbs title' - who wins?

Don't know where you get that Pac is more skilled than Martinez. Pac has one ATG ability no other: sublime footwork allowing him to move then reset in a split second, generating power from all angles at a certain distance. Add superb athleticism (stamina/volume, movement, speed), excellent timing, and great accuracy, and you get a fighter who's realitvely easy to figure out, but almost impossible to beat, because you just can't match his intensity and speed. Still, in and out, flurry when you cover up or throw hard bombs when you open up, Pac does the same thing over and over again (and does GREAT), this works the best vs. stationary targets. But when was the last time he fought an excellent mover? He might match SRL's achievements, but far from matching his complete skill arsenal: Pac doesn't box well on the backfoot, doesn't like a moving target, doesn't fight well off the ropes, is rather easy to hit - 'just' hits you back with a zillion punches (that 'just' made Calzaghe retire undefeated, it's a great 'just'). Also, Pac isn't very adaptable, but forces YOU to adapt to his speed and angles, usually failing. But he still gets hit with the anti-Pac shots even in those late rounds which is a major problem vs. highly adaptive boxers such as JMM (who isn't defensive master himself).

Martinez is also not an excellent defensive boxer, but watch about a dozen fights and you'll see he's more complete than Pac. Outside, mid-range or inside, box on the front or backfoot, lead or counter, use angles, feints, soft and hard shots, single shots and combinations, fight off the ropes, mix it up, he has everything other than elite defensive skills. He also doesn't have Pac's stamina to cover his defensive holes with volume (which works BTW as long as the defensively flawed volume puncher doesn't get caught with a biggie - Williams), so stamina would play a major part late, no doubt. But Martinez has great adaptablity today, he can adjust his defensive arsenal well to minimize damage in the 2nd half and also has the ability to take apart your offensive arsenal, just not on Mayweather's, Hopkins' or Calzaghe's level. IMO he has a better ring IQ than Pac.

Do you seriously think with the speed and movement Sergo has he'll stand in the middle of the ring and wait for Pac to go in and out on him? He'll move all night offering no statonary target, in fact, I'd expect him to box on the backfoot, and catch Manny when he tries to jump in, but finds out that Martinez himself stepped back and let is long counters fly. There's a certain range where Pacquiao works so great and it'd be a chessmatch to maintain that range, and for Maravilla, to either get inside that range to wrestle and Hopkins on the inside using his physical advantage, or stay outside of Pac's range and readapt to his distance to catch Pac whenever he jumpes ahead. IMO it's a matter of rounds and Martinez' adaptability takes over range.

Another thing: this is a southpaw battle, and the Williams fight gave Martinez more than enough experience vs. lefties using angles. I don't think Pac's style is suited vs. the longer version of himself, and I think his anti-southpaw left (Diaz) is too short to catch Martinez when he throws his (Williams). Anyway, it'd be a great, great fight and for the surprise of many, more a chess-match (favoring Martinez) than a brawl (favoring Pac). Martinez might be smaller than Margarito with a far shittier KO ratio, but he's far, far smarter and mobile than him.

 

And why do you think that?