By Michael Marley

It was an intriguing story line, the tale about Sergio Martinez, the dashing world middleweight champion from Argentina going into the Antonio Margarito camp in California.

According to Margarito trainer Robert Garcia, he had been assured that Martinez, whose Nov. 20 rematch with Tall Paul Williams will be formally announced any second now, would join them in Oxnard and spar at least some rounds with the Mexican who has a Nov. 13 ring date with Manny Pacquiao.

According to a recent report on Boxingscene.com, Martinez is interested in helping out Margarito in any way he can:

“I’m very close to Sergio Martinez’ camp and he is such a great person and they offered to help us out with whatever we need. I know that he is fighting Paul Williams, who is totally the opposite of Antonio Margarito, but he may be coming a couple days a week to camp. So more than likely we will be having Sergio Martinez as one of our sparring partners. We’ll have another four to five sparring partners but Martinez will be one of them. As of now that is what his coach and his team have already told me."  said Margarito's trainer, Robert Garcia.

It's something you rarely see in this era, two top echelon veterans banging gloves in sparring. In bygone times, it wasn't common but it was not very unusual, either.

Making it all the more enticing is the fact that Margarito owns a victory over Martinez. Martinez was rolling along unbeaten until February, 2000, when the Mexican shocked him.

It sure would be fascinating how the new, vastly improved and now supremely confident Martinez would fare in such a sparring session(s).

And both Martinez and Pacman are southpaws.

Turns out, as I suspected, that a tale is all it is.

Just wishful thinking or misinformation on Garcia's part, it seems.

"No way, no how," Martinez promoter Lou DiBella told me Tuesday around noon EDT after he placed a call to an associate.

While that type of classy sparring could benefit Tone Loc and Sergio, imagine the trepidation that HBO would have, worrying about one or both getting hurt and potentially KOing one PPV show at Cowboys Stadium and, a week later, a regular HBO main event in Atlantic City.

One famous instance of one heavyweight star sparring with another came when a big talker from Louisville made a monkey out of heavyweight champion Ingermar Johansson. The lumbering Swede, prepping for his March 13, 1961 Miami Beach rubber match against Floyd Patterson, could not hit Cassius Clay in the backside with a bag of rice.

And Clay wasn't shy in telling the world about it, either.

It should be noted, though, that Clay was just a 19 year old with four pro bouts at the time.

That sparring session became legendary when Clay became Muhammad Ali.

So if we see Martinez square off against Margarito a second time, it will be with small gloves, sans headgear and big purses on the line, not in the La Colonia Boxing Gym in Oxnard.

Can't blame Garcia for trying, though.

Michael Marley is the national boxing examiner for examiner.com. To read more stories by Michael Marley, Click Here.