If Manny Pacquiao no go Floyd Mayweather wants to a fight Sergio Martinez
Will he stay or will he go? That’s the question being asked about Sergio Martinez, who holds the WBO and WBC middleweight championships along with the WBC super welterweight championship. FightNews.com reports that the WBO is particularly interested learning on if he plans on staying at middleweight or will move back down to super welterweight and has given the Argentine champion until Saturday to decide on his future plans or else risk losing their middleweight crown.
If Martinez does decide to fall back to super welterweight, the WBO will likely hold a bout for an interim title between two top contenders. The two top-ranked fighters behind Martinez in the WBO rankings are Asia-Pacific champion Dmitry Pirog of Russia and American Daniel Jacobs.
Martinez won the unified middleweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Kelly Pavlik in April in Atlantic City. It was a stirring career comeback for Martinez, who was coming off a 12-round majority decision loss to Paul Williams last December and a draw with Kermit Cintron in February 2009. The victory vaulted Martinez to the top of the boxing pound-for-pound rankings. It also gave him the ability to be much more selective with his future fights.
With Martinez’s last two fights being in the middleweight division, it seems most likely that he will stay in the higher weight class. Although he has many different options for his next fight, it appears that one scenario that is out of the question is a possible rematch against Pavlik. His representatives confirmed earlier in May that he is going to wave his contractually obligated option for a rematch and move directly to super middleweight.
However, this might leave Martinez with an even potentially bigger reward at the end of the tunnel: Floyd Mayweather Jr. Newsday reported after Mayweather Jr.’s win against Shane Mosley on May 1 that Mayweather Jr. had expressed interested in moving up to middleweight for a fight against Martinez. This wouldn’t be the time that Mayweather Jr. has flirted with moving beyond the welterweight ranks – he had “demanded” a fight against super welterweight champion Winky Wright when Mayweather Jr. was the super lightweight champion but nothing came of it due to Mayweather Jr.'s contract demands.
It’s obvious why Martinez told BoxingScene.com that he “wants” to fight Mayweather Jr. – it would be a chance to establish his legacy and almost certainly the biggest paycheck currently available in boxing. For now, it appears that Mayweather Jr. considers Martinez to be a “fallback” position in case a bout against Manny Pacquiao fails to come together. It’s also a distinct possibility that Mayweather Jr. is using Martinez as a bargaining chip as show Pacquiao’s management team that he has other viable options and is willing to walk away from a deal if necessary.
If a fight with Mayweather Jr. doesn’t come together, what will the next step be for Martinez? He has said that beyond Mayweather Jr., one of the next fighters on his “list” of preferred opponents would be a rematch with Williams in an attempt to avenge his previous defeat. Martinez was apparently buoyed by watching Williams’ performance in his recent bout against Cintron from ringside. Martinez said that he believed Cintron was winning the fight before he went falling out of the ring causing the fight to be stopped.
Another possible choice for a future opponent for Martinez is Antonio Margarito. After winning his comeback fight against Roberto Garcia on May 15 after a one-year suspension for using tampered hand wraps, Margarito is again a hot property in boxing. He has been mentioned as a possible opponent for Pacquiao if his fight against Mayweather Jr. falls apart. There would certainly be a symmetry in the situation if Martinez and Margarito were to be dropped by Mayweather Jr. and Pacquaio in favor of a mega fight and were to find a way to fight each other.
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