Where do you rank Sergio Martinez at MW?

He was certainly a good fighter. Especially for someone who started boxing late in life. But, he was not a great fighter. I do not rate him versus all time great middleweights.

 

His peak was short, not a great resume.... his wins over Cintron and both against Williams are pretty good though.
At his best he would win a decision over the likes of Antuofermo, Briscoe, I believe he would beat someone like Golovkin.

 

Sergio’s promoter, Lou Dibella, said publicly and on the record, “You’re ****ing crazy if you think I’m letting Sergio anywhere near Golovkin.”

 

Slick, fun fighter to watch, a lower tier generational great with some sizzling fights, moments and highlights. I like him, I think he did all he could with what he had and had an entertaining, unique style which I was a huge fan of.

I can watch his first fight against Williams or the final rounds vs. JCC Jr. any time. He showed nice movement and skills in an underrated win vs. Pavlik and has a top 5 KO all time (in my estimation) vs. Paul Williams. I think Golovkin would have beaten him, as well as Hagler and Monzon to think of three, but I also think Sergio could give some interesting problems to less active or less fundamental fighters among the upper echelon

 

I'd rank him as very good maybe possibly a lower tier great he had good wins over Pavlik, Williams 1-1, and some solid B level wins vs the likes of Barker, Murray, Chavez Jr.

Honestly i think a good comparison would be Michael Nunn, two talented Southpaw both had stunning KOs over durable opponents Martinez over Williams, Nunn vs Kalambay. Both reigned for a similar amount of time Nunn made 5 defences and Martinez made 6 defences.

So i think where ever you rank Nunn then Martinez should be a similar ranking, although i do think Nunn at his best ranks a bit higher than Martinez on a H2H basis.

 

GGG would kill him. Sergio studiously avoided GGG while taking up easier fights. Not that I blame him since those fights paid him more than Golovkin would have, but it's clear that if he wanted a legacy stamp, beating the young up and comer would have been the way to go.

 

I dont

 

Too me he was one of the most athletically gifted champions but his late start hurt and lack of amateur background hurt him as a fighter. With that said, he still had a great career. The guy had fast hands, solid power and foot speed but he could be very sloppy and he use to drive me crazy when he would drop his hands.

All and all he would be hell for anyone to fight because of that hand speed but he would always be susceptible to counterpunchers because of his defensive lapses. GGG would have smashed him had they fought.

 

I've done an ATG top 20 at MW, but no lower. That's based solely on fights contested at MW. Martinez doesn't possess the quality or quantity of wins at MW to be considered for that top 20, with a lot of fights being contested at WW & LMW.

Sergio had a relatively short peak, but at his best he was a brilliant MW. Of post Hopkins MWs, I'd probably only make a peak version of GGG a clear favourite to beat a peak Martinez.

 

Like I said, Sergio had a very short peak, he was done at the point he faced Chavez Jr. He was having many physical issues already, his body was falling apart. If Chavez Jr almost beat him I belieev Golovkin would, sure...

Sergio from 08-10 outbox Golovkin though, imo.

 

Sergio isn't in the upper echelon of ATG MW's. He was very good for his time.

 

He doesn't IMO. He had 3 very good wins in a row (Pavlik, Williams, Dzinziruk) & then the quality of his performances diminished rapidly. Surrendering his title to Cotto (one of the weakest lineal MW champs of all time) was basically the final nail in the coffin of his legacy.

 

Cintron is a very good win too (officially was a draw but c´mon). Considering that Cintron´s only losses were to Margarito before the Mosley fight, you know, he was a very hard opponent..