By Michael Collins: Responding to the comments Floyd Mayweather Jr. recently made about being open to fighting former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in which Mayweather said to Yahoo Sports writer Kevin Iole that he’d do the fight if it were at a 150lb catchweight, Martinez came out and accepted Mayweather’s offer by saying he’d like to fight him in November when he’s free.
In an interview at boxinginsider.com, Martinez said “I said 150 and I will keep my promise…I don’t have any problems in fighting at Jr. middleweight. Talk is cheap. Fight or shut up. November would be a good month. I would have enough time to reach 150 and you could be recovered from your holidays.”
It sounds like Martinez is trying not to sound too desperate for the fight. He obviously must badly want the fight because it will bring him in so much more money than what he’s been getting for his fights. Martinez faces contender Matthew Macklin on March 17th.
That’s a fairly safe fight for Martinez compared to some of the other top contenders that might be able to give him some trouble. By fighting on March 17th, it leaves very little time for Martinez to recover and get ready for a fight against Mayweather on May 5th.
Martinez is talking about having to take weight off to get to the 150lb catchweight that Mayweather is asking for. Martinez likely won’t be too beaten up after the Macklin fight, because it’s pretty much a mismatch. But taking off the weight will be hard for Martinez because he’s mostly muscle with very little fat.
Mayweather has been trying to land a fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, but he and his promoter Bob Arum haven’t been all that interested in the May 5th date with Mayweather.