By Rick Reeno
Other names have been circulated, but BoxingScene.com has learned that Sergio "Maravilla" Martinez (43-1, 23KOs) will face hard-hitting Alex Bunema (30-5, 16KOs) in main event of HBO's triple-header at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, California. The WBC interim-junior middleweight title will be at stake. One source advised BoxingScene that a deal was reached last night.
Bunema, ranked sixth by the WBC, came into play after several of the higher ranked contenders were unavailable or were not interested in the fight.
Oscar De La Hoya is ranked at number-one and has ring return set on December 6, Martinez is ranked at two, Ricardo Mayorga (ranked three) is fighting Shane Mosley on September 27, Joel Julio (ranked at four) was close to taking the fight, but the deal went sour after Julio was not able to receive certain written guarantees - like an immediate shot at the winner of Sergio Mora (champion) vs. Vernon Forrest on September 13, and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (ranked five) is not ready for an opponent like Martinez.
Nobody at 154 was even thinking about Bunema at the beginning of the year, and then he comes out of nowhere to shake things up at the weight. In January, Bunema, fighting on the Jones-Trinidad undercard, shocked a packed house at New York's Madison Square Garden when he stopped former champion Roman Karmazin in the tenth-round. He followed up the big win with another, stopping Walter Dario Matthysse in seven-rounds in July. When sizing up the styles of Martinez and Bunema, logical would tell us that one of them is not going to make it to the final round.
The undercard will feature hot junior middleweight prospect Alfredo Angulo against tough contender Andrey Tsurkan, and Cuban star Yuriorkis Gamboa taking on Marcos Ramirez, an experienced featherweight with a 26-0, 16KOs record.
