"Last compulsory: Feb 21, 2009 by Pavlik" is what you can read on the WBC's website. Maravilla won the title in April last year, and will be fighting Dzin soon enough. No compulsory defence in over 12 months for Sergio Martinez. Still, the WBC pushed for Martinez-Zbik to happen early December 2010, just have a look at the press releases. Nope, HBO won't allow it. Fine. But This content is protected after he spends over a year steering away from the #1 contender? My point is This content is protected ... an HBO fight. It'd be stupid to think sanctioning voluntary defence rematches is a higher priority than acting in all fairness by forcing one compulsory defence to your champ, once in the year... wouldn't it? Say they don't strip Martinez, or more realistically say they make him Champion Emeritus (which Sulaiman himself told the press he was about to do) + make his 'regular' belt vacant & available... Chavez Jr - Zbik is in the works for May Lemieux - Rubio is in the works for March / April Macklin - Barker is in the works, date to be announced Current rankings: Interim champ - Zbik 1. Chavez Jr (silver belt) 2. Lemieux (international belt) 3. Rubio 4. Macklin (euro champ) 5. Barker Bottom line: the WBC...... SEEMS to be doing something with their top 5. Don't know if Sulaiman had anything to do with Macklin-Barker, but it shapes up to a series of contenders rising from eliminator type fights. I guess the winner of Zbik-Chavez Jr will get the belt, and that's a ****in shame. The winners of Lemieux-Rubio and Macklin-Barker will each have a stay busy fight, then will be coming on strong claiming a shot at the title. No way Martinez wants to jump in the mix at age 35 just to get back that 'regular' title. The winner of Zbik-Chavez Jr will get flattened by David, and the winner of Macklin-Barker vs Lemieux will be an awesome, world class fight. Too many years will have passed before HBO thinks Lemieux/Macklin/Barker are big enough to fight Martinez on their network... Maravilla will be long gone and we'll never see such a fight. Or does this sound too pessimistic?
I suspect they'll have the mandos fight each other (and/or Zbik). And if they don't, well then oh well. What does it actually add to Martinez's resume if he makes defenses of some bull**** title? He's THE CHAMP. That's all that matters. And honestly, out of that whole mess, it's hard to see Lemieux not coming out on top, and I'm sure HBO is jizzing at the possibility of Martinez-Lemieux about 9 months from now.
It'll be interesting to see where Pirog sits 9 months from now. Maybe HBO will come up with a Lemieux-Pirog fight for a WBC-WBO unification... with 'the champ' facing the winner in his last, perhaps second last fight. Mid 2012. :bbb
