Comments Thread For: Martin-Rivera Gives The Best of Risk and Reward

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

By Cliff Rold - Frank Martin (16-0, 12 KO) is on the road to title contention. Michel Rivera (24-0, 14 KO) is too. They won't be fighting for a title on Saturday night (Showtime, 10 PM EST). Not a full title, a regular title, an interim title...none of the above. No, the 27-year old Martin and the 24-year old Rivera are fighting on Saturday to get a step closer to contending and they're doing it the old-fashioned way. They're fighting to get ahead. Non-title fights like this didn't used to feel rare.
[Click Here To Read More]

[SteveM]

Very well written Cliff! Lets hope this fight and Ortis vs Stanionis are very bit as good as Lubin-Fundora.

[ShoulderRoll]

That's exactly right, Rivera and Martin are having to face each other because that division has a unified champion. There aren't any extra belts floating around to go after so they need to try to eliminate each other in order to stand out from the crowd.

This reinforces my view that boxing would be so much better if there was only one world champion per weight class.

[Nightfall]

The leather will be flying in the Martin vs Rivera scrap

[PBR Streetgang]

Job well done on this one Cliff. Very nice piece. Looking forward to this fight.

[anonymous2.0]

Martin and Rivera have chosen door number two. It’s a real risk. Even if the fight is great (and it could be) and everyone is ready to see both men again (and we might), the defeated will have taken a step back. The victor will not only be a step closer on paper but also in public esteem.

Who says the defeated has to take a step back? Boxing is full of guys who lost but raised their stock on the same night. But it's articles like this that reinforce the notion of "losing = career death/stall" and so young boxers will protect their undefeated record by fighting no hopers and journeymen all the way to a title fight.

[Boxfan83]

This would've been a great co main to Spence vs Crawford.

[Gideon lock]

My goodness what a sneaky looking man in that photo. Looks like a common bike thief version of Trinidad.