Sergio Martinez defends his middleweight championship in Argentina against undefeated challenger Martin Murray, in what should be one of the most interesting fights of the month. The Champ is 38 years old; his record is 50-2-2 (28-1). Murray, 30, is 25-0, with 11 knockouts. Perhaps the biggest question is: how much does the aging champion have left, especially coming off a fight where he was badly hurt in the final round?
Martinez fought most of his career in Europe. Although he was recognized as a real talent, the American promoters did not think his style -- hit-and-don’t-get-hit -- would translate into large ticket sales in the USA. His first big fight here was in February of ‘09, against Kermit Cintron. Although Cintron was counted out after being decked by a punch, the referee “decided” to let the bout continue. Martinez clearly won the fight, but it was ruled a draw -- evidence, one could safely say, that the promoter viewed Kermit as having a more promising future.
Later that year, Martinez lost a disputed decision to undefeated Paul Williams. I thought that the fight could have been decided either way (or a draw), though I had Paul winning by a round. Still, this led to Martinez getting a shot at the middleweight title.
His April, 2010 fight with Kelly Pavlik showed that Sergio could mix it up with a larger, much stronger opponent. Pavlik experienced difficulty seeing in the second-half of the fight, due to serious cuts that Martinez’s hands, head, and elbows had opened around his eyes. Still, Kelly was able to land numerous solid blows on the challenger, of the type that no one Pavlik’s size had been able to stand up to, before. Martinez won a decision and the title.
In November, he defended the title against Williams, in a much-anticipated return bout. Martinez caught Williams with a crushing counter-punch in the second round, scoring what was clearly the “knockout of the year.” Suddenly, promoters viewed him as a marketable slugger. He would defend the title four times in televised bouts, scoring three knockouts. However, the one-punch devastation of Williams was not repeated: for Sergio is a classic boxer, who tends to wear an opponent down, slowly and methodically.
Last September, he defended the title against Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. The son of the Mexican boxing legend entered the ring as a cruiserweight, taking full advantage of the day-before weigh-ins that are harming the sport. Martinez is actually a junior middleweight, who owns the middleweight title; he was facing a challenger with a 30-pound weight advantage. (Only in boxing!)
Martinez won the first eight rounds easily. Chavez did little but absorb punches, while missing the few shots he got off. But Martinez was burning up a lot of energy. Think of this: in the gym, a good trainer has his fighter use different sized heavy bags. Punching a 100-lb bag tires the fighter much more than hitting a 70-lb bag with the exact same punches over the exact same number of rounds. Now, add Martinez’s expending energy to avoid Chavez’s punches.
In the 10th round, Chavez began landing more. The television announcers didn’t see it, but I surely did -- and they were having an impact. Martinez won the round, but he burned a lot of energy. In the 11th, Chavez picked up the pace. His left hook began to land. Sergio clearly felt those punches. Again, he took the round, but he suffered some damage.
In that final round, he attempted to stop Chavez. In doing so, he ran into several hard left hooks. He went into the ropes, and the ref failed to count that as a knockdown (only the ropes held him up). Thus, Chavez landed more hard shots -- and that was similar to hitting a man on the canvas. Chavez wasn’t wrong; the referee failed to do his job. Martinez went down, injuring his ankle on the way. Thus, when he got up, he couldn’t run away from Chavez. Instead, he was forced to do battle in close until the round ended.
In Murray, he faces a bigger, stronger, younger man who has not lost as a professional. While Murray is not a big puncher, he is extremely aggressive, and fights in a brawling style. At his best, Martinez has done well against such fighters. But, if he’s not at his best, he’s in for a tough night.
It is hard to predict, without having seen both guys train. (Fighters don’t “get old” in the ring; that happens in the gym.) My son thinks Martinez will stop Murray in the later rounds. I think he’s more likely to win by decision. But I think there is a very real chance that Murray will be too strong in the second-half of the bout, although that doesn’t mean he’d get a fair shake in the champion’s home turf.
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