Comments Thread For: DiBella Blows Up at Merchant Over Martinez-Bute, Ward

[kiaba360]

All great fighters move up in weight. Why can't Martinez move up?

Because people are expecting him to go right for the top dogs, when imho, he has no business going up to SMW. The only person he could legitimately beat is Abraham, but he loses to Ward/Froch/Bute. So basically, he isn't an ATG, he's just a very good fighter. He'll have much more success moving down than moving up. He should aim to become the Undisputed MW champion, then go to 154 and try to become Undisputed as well. He doesn't need to move up to SMW to create a legacy.

[LAFIRPO]

That's the whole point. He is clearly the best at 160. There is nothing for him there. If he is courting greatness he should move up. Beating fighter who are great but much smaller is nice. Conquering the best in the division above him is better.

How many fighters do you know have moved up 3 divisions and have become succesfull? There aren't too many. Also are you aware that monzon, hagler, and many other great fighters never moved up in weight?

[GodInFleshSuit]

That's the whole point. He is clearly the best at 160. There is nothing for him there. If he is courting greatness he should move up. Beating fighter who are great but much smaller is nice. Conquering the best in the division above him is better.

I get what your saying but Martinez isn't bigger than these guys he has beaten. Martinez is a natural 154 fighter who has been beating natural middle weight fighters. So he is the smaller man in the ring. I think he should fight JCC Jr and get his belt back. Then get Sturms belt. After that move back down to 154 and fight the loaded division down there.

[LAFIRPO]

I get what your saying but Martinez isn't bigger than these guys he has beaten. Martinez is a natural 154 fighter who has been beating natural middle weight fighters. So he is the smaller man in the ring. I think he should fight JCC Jr and get his belt back. Then get Sturms belt. After that move back down to 154 and fight the loaded division down there.

A Sturm fight won't happen. Its either chavez or move down to 154. sergio will be more comfortable fighting guys his size instead of giving up so much weight at middle weight.

[check hook]

Lou DiBella has fired back at HBO's veteran broadcaster Larry Merchant. In an earlier article on BoxingScene.com, Merchant told the website's Chris Robinson, that middleweight king Sergio Martinez should stop continuously chasing fights with boxers like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr. - and instead to do something great by moving up to 168-pounds to challenge super middleweight champions Andre Ward and Lucian Bute.

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Whilst i personally don't believe Maravilla should (or has to) move up to 68 to prove anything, DiBella is talking out of his ass a lil bit here. Last time Sergio had a weigh in a month out he was in the 170's! Are we really supposed to believe he walks around at 154?? There is no way he's walking around even under 160.

[LAFIRPO]

Whilst i personally don't believe Maravilla should (or has to) move up to 68 to prove anything, DiBella is talking out of his ass a lil bit here. Last time Sergio had a weigh in a month out he was in the 170's! Are we really supposed to believe he walks around at 154?? There is no way he's walking around even under 160.

I don't know what his walk around weight is, but on fight fight Sergio has not weighed more than 165. When Sergio fought Pavlik, Pavlik was weighing 180. Martinez is the smaller fighter against all the mw's he's faced.

[JAB5239]

How many fighters do you know have moved up 3 divisions and have become succesfull? There aren't too many. Also are you aware that monzon, hagler, and many other great fighters never moved up in weight?

You do realize there was no 168lb division for them to fight in and both beat much better fighters than there are for Martinez to face today, right?

I'll also mention Hagler was much smaller than Martinez.

[mistermartin]

If the fighters can make weight at the scales then this doesn't matter. You can't just criticize Lou as if he's the only liar in the sport. Bob Arum is literally and almost single handedly destroying the credibility of boxing yet Lou gets bashed for talking about weight? Margarito is bigger than Pac, Floyd AND Martinez (if I recall) yet Martinez is too big for them? Ward is big for his division...used to be a light heavy. Bute is big as well.

It doesn't matter if Pac walks around at 200 pounds, or Martinez at 200 but if the fighters themselves say they feel more comfortable at a certain weight, then there should be no discussion. We dont know how good they feel. Martinez come fight night and compared to almost all his opponents he seems smaller. He was biggest looking against Dzinziruk/Kelly but has since seemed to trim some muscle down, especially last night where he seemed thinner.

Personally, I think Lou is handling Martinez wrong. I dn't think Lou is completely wrong with what he said but there's a time and a place for everything and he's REALLY unprofessional at times. Martinez is doing his part, Lou isn't and he's mad that other promoters don't want to risk their fighters again him. That's what they do, build up the brand til you're a top commodity and the reward makes the risk worth it for a top earning fighter. Martinez and Macklin had a great atmosphere and there was a great crowd for Martinez but his "brand" is pretty much being made by word of mouth and results not because of Lou. Lou needs to bite the bullet and trust his fighter. Martinez said he'd be uncomfortable but would be willing to fight a 168 pounder with a name at a catch weight. Nobody expects him to fight Ward and Bute, everybody knows they are big but Lou doesn't let the idea stick around to cause interest. Let the commentators bring up Martinez when the 168 pounders fight, let other fans hear his name and look him up, see who this "p4p fighter Martinez" who's in talks to fight Ward and Bute is. Let him fught Direll, or Froch ir a winnable fight against a 168 pounder instead of chasing mr 180+ pounds in Chavez jr. Beating JR aint going to win him any new fans. Everybody who knows Chavez Jr kniws Martinez and knows Martinez is better. Martinez challenges everyone including Ward, everyone likes that..but then Lou cones out like an idiot and is like "**** this this and that this mother ****er this and dont listen to Martinez he aint fighting a 168 pounder, blah blah Chavez". He's having Martinez sit around waiting too much then it doesn't pan out and ends up having to take somebody else, like Macklin. Granted Macklin was considered by many among the top 3 middleweights, but Martinez didnt seem excited for it. He seemed bored all night like he was sparring, just scoring points all night and even when he knocked him down he just had this "ehh" expression and didn't seem to get excited.


Take a page out of Arum. If he doesn't get what he wants, next, move on. Keep your fighter busy.

This is a pretty good post..my only issue is that even if he does go up to 68 there are no really big names there. Nobody is there to give him any credibility. AD dropped out of the super 6 & at best is an afterthought. Bute is a cow only in Canada...but he's 6'2 & big....Forch...Ward...all them guys are big...Kessler. They are thick framed men. Look at how poorly Aurthur abrham faired vs them. I mean it's a high risk low reward proposition. I mean who's he gonna fight...sakio bika?? He just has to keep doing wut he's doing imo & beat everybody. the difficult part about that is he's bored w/ these opps.

[check hook]

I don't know what his walk around weight is, but on fight fight Sergio has not weighed more than 165. When Sergio fought Pavlik, Pavlik was weighing 180. Martinez is the smaller fighter against all the mw's he's faced.

I agree that he is a small MW. Though i'm fairly certain (someone corerect me if i'm wrong) but my memory is telling me he had a mandatory weigh in one month before the PWilly rematch and he was in the 70's a month before fight night.

[UglyPug]

Im still LOLing x 1000 @ the nughuggers exposed. . . Dibella's cue ball headed ass is just as bad of a liar as any other promotor. . . Hahaha it's just so funny to see them get on their knees and beg to fight guys so much smaller than sergio.

LOL, and then people justifying when he shouldn't fight Bute, or Ward, BUT PEFECTLY FINE for him to fight Pac, or Floyd