Sergio Martinez's Options Could Include Lee and Geale

By Keith Idec

NEW YORK — Assuming Sergio Martinez remains at middleweight for his next bout and cannot lure Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. into the fight he really wants, there are two opponents promoter Lou DiBella will consider.

DiBella said fights against IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale and Andy Lee make sense to him, but DiBella won’t entertain offers for bouts with two other undefeated middleweight title-holders.

“To get into a situation where someone comes up and says, ‘Fight a Pirog, fight a Golovkin,’ I’m going to say no,” DiBella said. “Because they bring not a dollar to the table. Not that they’re not good fighters, but he’s going to beat them anyway and they bring nothing but risk, and no reward. Zero. It proves nothing. I’d rather fight Andy Lee, bring it back here [to The Theater at Madison Square Garden] and sell the place out again. … Andy’s certainly in the mix. He’s one of the best available middleweights. Andy’s got to be in the mix. And Danny Geale, I mean, he speaks English, you can promote him. I don’t know.”

Kazakhstan’s Gennady Golovkin (22-0, 19 KOs), who owns the WBA’s middleweight title (Felix Sturm is the WBA’s super champion at 160 pounds), attended Martinez’s technical knockout victory over Matthew Macklin on Saturday night in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Golovkin very much wants to fight Martinez in the United States, but it appears that the talented but unknown Stuttgart, Germany, resident will have to look for another opponent against whom he can make his American debut.

Russia’s Dmitry Pirog (19-0, 15 KOs) made a sensational American debut by knocking out Danny Jacobs (22-1, 19 KOs) to win the then-vacant WBO middleweight title in July 2010. He has fought just twice since then, though, and is tentatively scheduled to defend his championship against an undetermined opponent May 1 in Moscow.

Australia’s Geale (27-1, 15 KOs) made a second defense of the IBF 160-pound title March 7 in Hobart, Australia, where he out-pointed Ghana’s Osumanu Adama (20-3, 15 KOs).

“My personal opinion is I don’t think Lou wants to fight anybody with Martinez,” said Gary Shaw, Geale’s promoter. “He’s looking for the easy way out. But I think those days are over. He and [Martinez adviser] Sampson [Lewkowicz] and Martinez are going to get a strong dose of medication when they go up to HBO for the next Martinez fight.

“I’ve spoken to [DiBella]. I’ve said, you should be looking [at Geale] as the next guy.’ But right now, it’s falling on deaf ears, so I’ll let someone else relay the message to them.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.