By Keith Idec
Sergio Martinez is unable to hide his disdain for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. They collide in a Sept. 15 middleweight title fight in Las Vegas.
The elite middleweight mostly projects a pleasant disposition, but Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KOs) gets aggravated when the conversation turns to the undefeated son of Mexico’s most renowned boxer.
“It is very simple,” Martinez said of the reasoning behind his dislike of Chavez. “I cannot accept the fact he is [WBC] world champion. The only reason he is world champion is because he is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the son of a legend. And his mouth is so big, even bigger than his own brain, and he’s talking too much.”
The 26-year-old Chavez (46-0-1, 32 KOs) won the WBC middleweight championship in June 2011, after the Mexico City-based WBC stripped Martinez for not boxing Germany’s Sebastian Zbik (30-2, 10 KOs), whom Chavez defeated by majority decision 15 months ago in Los Angeles to win the then-vacant WBC crown. His rise has made Martinez, 37, so angry that the affable Argentine southpaw has been uncharacteristically outspoken throughout the promotion of their HBO Pay-Per-View main event at Thomas & Mack Center.
“Julio Cesar Chavez is fighting Sergio Martinez,” Martinez said. “Regardless of the preparation [he’s had] his entire career, it would not make a difference. I will knock him out, anyway. I believe that I am No. 2 in this sport, so that is good enough, to know that I will beat him. He cannot beat me. He cannot. I don’t really know if there is any easy aspect of him [in relation to] his fighting , but I know that I am better than him.”
Martinez is a 2-1 favorite as the long-awaited middleweight showdown rapidly approaches.
“My trainer and I have worked very hard for the past two months,” Martinez said. “People will see who the ‘real’ middleweight champion because they know who the best is right now, and that is Sergio ‘Maravilla’ Martinez. We all know that Chavez has the title, but on Sept. 15 the belt will go back to the rightful owner, and that is Sergio.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.
