By Chris Robinson

It was a little over a year ago that lineal middleweight champion Sergio Martinez saw his prized WBC title inexplicably stripped from him.

The move was obvious, as the belt was declared vacant so that Mexican star Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. could have easier access towards claiming it. Months later and Chavez Jr. would do just that, defeating Sebastian Zbik in a firefight this past June inside of the Staples Center in Los Angeles as he pulled out a hotly-contested majority-decision.

Ever since losing his title, Martinez has craved for a fight with Chavez to no avail. He spent last year scoring TKO victories over relatively unknown commodities Sergiy Dzinziruk and Darren Barker and is again matched with an opponent who the public isn’t instantly taken aback by in the United Kingdom's Matthew Macklin.

Despite not being set up with the type of high-profile encounter that he would like, life must go on for the soft-spoken Argentinean.

“I feel very happy,” Martinez told me recently from his training camp in Oxnard, California. “Very motivated. Feeling great to keep working hard to get to the fight in the best condition possible.”

The Macklin fight is scheduled for March 17th at the Wamu Theater inside of the famed Madison Sqaure Garden and is slated to be televised by HBO. When taking that fact in I couldn’t help but to flash back to late December when Martinez staged a press conference in his native Buenos Aires to announce that he was ditching the consolatory WBC diamond belt he had been given after being stripped of his full title while also venting his frustration towards HBO, claiming he had been mistreated by the company and was no longer interested in showcasing his skills on the network.

Less than a month later and Martinez’s mood has seemed to chill, however, as he pointed out that there are no hard feelings whatsoever between him and HBO.

“No, not at this moment,” Martinez continued, speaking through his translator Marcelo Crudele. “They changed the people who were in charge of that area, so now everything is ok. I feel very happy, because, thanks to them, I’m famous all over the world.”

But when it comes to Chavez, Martinez couldn’t hide his bewilderment.

“Everybody knows what’s going on with Chavez,” Martinez stated bluntly. “He doesn’t want to fight me. I don’t know if [his trainer] Freddie Roach wants Chavez to fight me. I’m feeling very disappointed. This is the first Mexican man who is afraid to fight. I’m very disappointed.”

Perhaps Martinez’s enthusiasm towards his craft has been dulled a bit over the past twelve months but he was still relatively upbeat as our conversation continued.

Boxing may be a sport full of greed and for Martinez, he must feel like the fights he truly relishes are practically out of reach. But there’s no looking back for ‘Maravilla’, as he is knee deep in the sport and understands how the game works.

“Unfortunately, money talks more than the sport. Money talks, especially in this sport,” said Martinez.

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Tags: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr , Sergio Martinez , Matthew Macklin , Martinez-Macklin , Martinez vs Macklin