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By Cliff Rold - On April 17, 2010, Sergio Martinez rose from the floor to bloody and best Kelly Pavlik to wrest away history’s championship at 160 lbs.
On September 15, 2012, Martinez became everyone’s Middleweight Champion of the World.
Avid fight followers didn’t need the latter date. The rest of the world did. As good as Sergio Martinez was in defeating Pavlik, in avenging defeat versus Paul Williams, in making four straight title defenses by knockout, he remained the hunter.
It’s one thing to be the man inside the ring. It’s another to command that respect outside of it. When Martinez won almost all of the first eleven, and survived the twelfth, against big drawing progeny Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., he had truly arrived.
A pay-per-view buyrate of approximately 475,000, on a night when Saul Alvarez was headlining a free-to-subscribers card on Showtime was one big positive. So was a highlight reel on ESPN Sports Center that played in heavy rotation. Chavez entered the bigger start and, based on his near dramatic rescue left with some wind still beneath his sails.
But it was Martinez’s night, and his introduction to an even wider audience.
The whole affair was the sort of strange inversion of reality that can only happen in boxing. Despite being the recognized champion of the division, Martinez had spent the better part of a couple years trying to get the undefeated Chavez into the ring. Network and sanctioning body politics had shorn Martinez of a WBC belt. [Click Here To Read More]
On September 15, 2012, Martinez became everyone’s Middleweight Champion of the World.
Avid fight followers didn’t need the latter date. The rest of the world did. As good as Sergio Martinez was in defeating Pavlik, in avenging defeat versus Paul Williams, in making four straight title defenses by knockout, he remained the hunter.
It’s one thing to be the man inside the ring. It’s another to command that respect outside of it. When Martinez won almost all of the first eleven, and survived the twelfth, against big drawing progeny Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., he had truly arrived.
A pay-per-view buyrate of approximately 475,000, on a night when Saul Alvarez was headlining a free-to-subscribers card on Showtime was one big positive. So was a highlight reel on ESPN Sports Center that played in heavy rotation. Chavez entered the bigger start and, based on his near dramatic rescue left with some wind still beneath his sails.
But it was Martinez’s night, and his introduction to an even wider audience.
The whole affair was the sort of strange inversion of reality that can only happen in boxing. Despite being the recognized champion of the division, Martinez had spent the better part of a couple years trying to get the undefeated Chavez into the ring. Network and sanctioning body politics had shorn Martinez of a WBC belt. [Click Here To Read More]
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