Michael Marley confirms Martinez-Margarito training possibility off
An exciting game of broken telephone was called off today.
Michael Marley confirmed via Lou Dibella that fighter Sergio Martinez will not be training with Antonio Margarito to help him with his upcoming November 13 bout with seven-division titlist Manny Pacquiao, despite earlier claims to the contrary.
According to BoxingScene.com, Martinez was interested in helping Margarito out for the bout. Robert Garcia, Margarito’s trainer, said, “I’m very close to Sergio Martinez’s camp and he is such a great person and they offered to help us out with whatever
we need [...] So more than likely we will be having Sergio Martinez as one of our sparring partners.”
The news came under contention when it was announced recently that Martinez, the current WBC/Ring magazine middleweight champion, had inked in a rematch date with former WBO titlist Paul Williams.
When asked about Martinez training with Margarito in coming weeks, Lou Dibella, who promotes Martinez, simply said, “No way, no how.” The response ought to have been expected.
In boxing, when two superstars such as Margarito and Martinez are preparing for bouts, especially bouts televised by large broadcasting companies like HBO, it doesn’t bode well to put them in the ring beforehand and have them potentially hurt each other.
HBO has confirmed Pay-Per-View interest in Pacquiao-Margarito, which expects to draw in 70,000 fans, and prime-time interest in Martinez-Williams II. But imagine if either of these events, which will gross millions of dollars, had to be postponed due to
a sparring blunder?
The added bit of drama here is that Martinez and Margarito have previously met in the ring for an official bout in 2000. On that occasion Margarito shocked the world by handing Martinez his first defeat.
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