By James Slater: Middleweight king Sergio Gabriel Martinez, already ranked at number-three in most P-4-P lists, says he is “obsessed” with becoming the #1 guy on all lists. Last night, against the unbeaten and avoided Sergiy Dzinziruk, Martinez certainly helped his case. Halting the tall, fellow southpaw in the 8th-round, when he scored three knockdowns, “Maravilla” showed again how good he is against any style.
Now 47-2-2(26), the at-his-peak 36-year-old followed up his sensational, one-punch KO of another tall southpaw in Paul Williams. The question now is: who and what next for the Argentine?
After last night’s impressive win, Martinez spoke of his desire to become the very best in the entire sport.
“Becoming the best Pound for Pound fighter is a dream of mine,” he said. “It obsesses me. I will be Pound for Pound best. I want the best fighters in front of me. Mayweather, Pacquiao, I want them.”
But would Pac-Man or “Money” ever want to fight Martinez? Pacquiao is generally considered to be just too small to fight at middleweight, especially against as special a fighter as Martinez. While Mayweather has to iron out his legal issues before he can fight again. And do you really think Floyd will risk his ‘O’ against the middleweight ruler?
So who could Martinez – a fighter his promoter Lou DiBella has called “a beast” – face next?
“Maravilla” could look to clean up the alphabelts at 160-pounds, with fights against belt-holders Felix Sturm, Dimitriy Pirog and the like. But would such fights appeal to either the champ or the fans? And what makes you think these guys, Sebastian Zbik amongst the current titlists, would opt to risk their titles and their unbeaten records against Martinez?
It may well be that Martinez is too good for his own good. There is seemingly no-one at all to touch him at either 154 or 160, and Martinez’ fellow P-4-P stars appear to be out of reach. It’s possible we could see a third fight between Martinez and Paul Williams, seeing as the two are one-and-one right now. But with the way Martinez handled “The Punisher” last time out, would such a rubber-match sell?
Martinez has often thrown out the name of Miguel Cotto. The Puerto Rican retained his WBA 154-pound belt last night; maybe this is a fight we could get excited about. But will Martinez ever get the fights he really craves? And will he ever secure that P-4-P number-one spot he obsesses about?