By Mark Vester
Sergio Martinez got revenge for his promoter Lou DiBella. On Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Martinez won a twelve round unanimous decision over Kelly Pavlik to snatch the WBO/WBC middleweight crown. Martinez left Pavlik a bloody and bruised mess by the end of the fight.
Back in 2007, in the same Atlantic City venue, Pavlik knocked out Jermain Taylor in seven rounds to capture the middleweight titles. Taylor, who was DiBella's star fighter at the time, was never the same after the loss.
Pavlik has a mandatory rematch clause. He had a lot of trouble making the middleweight limit for the fight, but promises to exercise the rematch clause for a second crack at Martinez. Paul Williams was watching the fight from ringside. He wants to fight Martinez in a rematch. The two of them staged a fight of the year battle in December, which Williams won with a very close majority decision. Martinez doesn't care which rematch comes first. Williams still has to beat Kermit Cintron on May 8.
"It would be an honor to fight [Kelly Pavlik] again, but it doesn't matter to me, I'll take either fight," Martinez said.
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