By Bill "Two Scoops" Emes
WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez has promised to hand trainer Freddie Roach another loss this coming Saturday night at New York's Madison Square Garden. Martinez defends his title against former three division world champion Miguel Cotto.
Two years ago, Martinez dominated another Roach fighter, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., for eleven out of twelve rounds. In the twelfth and final round, Chavez rocked, dropped and nearly stopped Martinez.
"Julio Cesar Chavez trained five days for that fight and he almost won that fight by a knockout. He came really close. I have a fighter who worked eight weeks for this fight, six days a week, 5am every morning. There is a huge, huge difference here. When you saw me on HBO waiting for [Chavez] at the gym, that happened 31 times, but didn't I want to kill the guy. The only reason I stayed was because his father asked me to stay and I respected his dad. He kept telling me to stay, that he would show up, but he never did. He sparred five days for that fight, he did the mitts four days for that fight. He ate Cheerios with his underwear on at home more than he was in the gym. I love Julio, he's a great guy but I'm disappointed that he didn't show his best that night," Roach told BoxingScene.com.
"Sergio won eleven rounds and almost got knocked out in the twelfth. But he fought a good fight, I will say that. I think he left a lot of his game in the ring that night, because that was a hard, hard fight for him. He really tried to knock [Julio] out. He was really aggressive that night. He tried and tried but he couldn't do it. And in his next fight he looked poor and I think that's because of the [Chavez] fight. I think that was his last hurrah."
