By Michael Collins: WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KO’s) has to beat Matthew Macklin (28-3, 19 KO’s) on March 17th to keep pressure on WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and the World Boxing Council.
Martinez, 36, was supposed to be fighting Chavez Jr. next but Chavez Jr. was able to convince the WBC to let him skip the Martinez fight in order to fight #1 contender Marco Antonio Rubio on February 4th. However, at some point in the future, the WBC will have to force Chavez Jr. to defend his title against Martinez or else strip him.
Martinez may have to wait a year or more for the WBC to finally show some teeth and get Chavez Jr. to make a decision about vacating the title, having it stripped from him or agreeing to fight Martinez. Until that time comes, Martinez has to beat guys like Macklin to keep Chavez Jr., the WBC and his promoter Bob Arum under pressure.
Macklin, 29, is a decent middleweight with average power, poor defensives skills and a tendency to throw a lot of punches to the point where he punches himself out. Other than his losing effort against WBA World middleweight champion Felix Sturm last year in June, Macklin hasn’t really fought anyone of quality.
All of Macklin’s wins have come against B, C and D level opposition. His career has been on the slow track until recently when he got the Sturm fight. The best win over Macklin’s career was against Ruben Varon in December 2010. It was a good win but it was hardly against someone that has even close to the kind of talent that Martinez has going for him.
Macklin will be destroyed in this fight and will be lucky to make it six rounds. He’s perfect for Martinez because he’ll be going right after him making it easy.