Sergio is looking bad on purpose....

[WarMaidana]

Notice in last two fights he starts off slow, almost looks as if hes toying with his opponent. Then when he feels urgency he decides to completely dominate, and knocked both them out. I think he is messign around for first half of fight, just so it makes him look vulnerable and that he will get a fight with someone with a big name

Also i gotta say, no one wants to see ward vs martinez, only martinez haters do. Ward is boring in and out of the ring. The guy has no hype, and casual fans dont know who he is, so thats why he should never fight ward

[Bombs]

I see your point but the way you called it like "looking bad" .. I think that's not the right way to describe it. Maybe toning it down would be the most appropriate description. He looked pretty good last night, boxed and then he knocked the guy out.

But I do think he could have ended the last two fights quicker if he wanted to. If Sergio decides to put the pressure on your early and chop you down viciously you're done. He actually hit Macklin flush a few times and he didn't continue the attack which does lead me to believe he might be toning it down on purpose.

[chiguy91]

haha, your title is going to get a lot of responses (i think). it's like skip bayless saying pacquiao carried marquez in their third fight to try and lure mayweather in. i guess it didn't work huh?
anyways, i'm not fully on board with this. martinez said (in spanish) in the post-fight interview, he didn't expect macklin to fight like he did. he expected a come forward fighter looking to make this a fight/brawl. so once martinez realized he would be in for a different fight than he expected, it took some time to figure things out. kind of like a puzzle. macklin landed some decent shots though, and made it look tough, no doubt about it though. but like the quote in my sig says, "just like cutting a tree, little by little, they will eventually fall down." i mean martinez did predict a knockout in the tenth. he was off by one round. oh well. great fight overall. imo it was a good performance for both fighters. mcgirt shaped macklin into a tough opponent and macklin fought his heart out. martinez showed he isn't old just yet and can find ways to close the show when the going gets tough.

[WarMaidana]

I see your point but the way you called it like "looking bad" .. I think that's not the right way to describe it. Maybe toning it down would be the most appropriate description. He looked pretty good last night, boxed and then he knocked the guy out.

But I do think he could have ended the last two fights quicker if he wanted to. If Sergio decides to put the pressure on your early and chop you down viciously you're done. He actually hit Macklin flush a few times and he didn't continue the attack which does lead me to believe he might be toning it down on purpose.

your right i dont mean look bad, but he could have looked better though

[Barn]

Or maybe he was just trying to figure out the timing on a difficult and awkward opponent.

[chiguy91]

your right i dont mean look bad, but he could have looked better though

yup, he's a counterpuncher who has to turn into the aggressor. barker and macklin knew that they'd get KO'ed if they came in being the come forward fighter so everything changed. depending on who he fights next, i think martinez will have to be more aggressive from now on.

[Ringlife]

I think he was taking Macklin lightly before the fight and during the fight.

[kiaba360]

I think to some people, Martinez is "looking bad", but it's by design. Martinez really has his style down to a science. The first half of the fight, he's not really over-exerting himself, but he is landing crisp punches to the head/body and slipping punches. He's conserving his energy for the most part. By the 6th round, Macklin's face was starting to disfigure. It took the knockdown to make him realize that it was time for him to shift gears and start applying more pressure, which is what he did. In the middle rounds til the stoppage, he would ambush Macklin at unexpected times, and he wasn't able to defend well cuz he was fading. As Macklin started tiring, Sergio was timing him with the left over and over. Macklin started reverting back to his old tactics, and that's what Sergio was waiting for. Martinez has stamina in the later rounds because he is intelligently consuming it throughout the fight. He has a low work-rate, but his punches do plenty of damage. Sergio's fighting strategy is smarter than it seems. I'm not a fan of him dropping his hands, but after the fight, he didn't have any bruising or cuts.

[RespekonMyName]

Nobody looks bad on purpose.

[Ringlife]

I think to some people, Martinez is "looking bad", but it's by design. Martinez really has his style down to a science. The first half of the fight, he's not really over-exerting himself, but he is landing crisp punches to the head/body and slipping punches. He's conserving his energy for the most part. By the 6th round, Macklin's face was starting to disfigure. It took the knockdown to make him realize that it was time for him to shift gears and start applying more pressure, which is what he did. In the middle rounds til the stoppage, he would ambush Macklin at unexpected times, and he wasn't able to defend well cuz he was fading. As Macklin started tiring, Sergio was timing him with the left over and over. Macklin started reverting back to his old tactics, and that's what Sergio was waiting for. Martinez has stamina in the later rounds because he is intelligently consuming it throughout the fight. He has a low work-rate, but his punches do plenty of damage. Sergio's fighting strategy is smarter than it seems. I'm not a fan of him dropping his hands, but after the fight, he didn't have any bruising or cuts.

I agree 100%.