By Rick Reeno
Promoter Lou DiBella erupted over the comments that were made by trainer Freddie Roach, who in a recent interview criticized the boxing ability, and the actual worth, of middleweight king Sergio Martinez. Roach wants to match his unbeaten super middleweight Peter Quillin against Martinez. DiBella says it's ironic that Roach would offer up Quillin, but refuses to allow Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to defend his WBC middleweight title against Martinez. The WBC ordered Chavez to defend his belt against Martinez, the mandatory challenger, by March of next year.
"I can promise you this, Martinez will starve himself just to make 154 for [Manny] Pacquiao, but Roach will never do that fight. At 154, he's only going to put Pacquiao in the ring with fighters who have no chance to win. Freddie Roach wants to talk about overrated.......what about Chavez Jr.? HBO wouldn't accept a fight between Sergio and [Sebastian] Zbik, but they accepted a fight between Chavez and Zbik and it was anybody's fight," DiBella told BoxingScene.com.
"At least Chavez has the balls to fight, but Roach is too terrified to let it happen. Roach is more scared for Chavez than Chavez is scared for himself. Peter Quillin is a good fighter, but he's done nothing at 160-pounds to earn a shot with Sergio. Let him go to middleweight and beat a few guys like a Dmitry Pirog or Felix Sturm or Matthew Macklin, and then we could talk. I like Freddie, he's a good trainer, but right now it's put up of shut up time. If Sergio is so overrated, then make the Chavez fight happen, but Freddie is more scared for Chavez Jr. than Chavez Jr. is scared for himself."