Sergio Martinez and WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez are taunting and insulting each other ahead of their fight on Las Vegas on Saturday night.

"I trained a long time dancing," Martinez said. "That's all I need to break his face a thousand times.

“I will punish him a lot, and then I will knock him out. He will suffer a lot," the 37-year-old Argentinian said.

Chavez predicted a different outcome to their bout at the Thomas & Mack Centre in Las Vegas. "I'm not only going to beat you; I'm going to retire you," he said to Martinez.

The 26-year-old Mexican said he had watched tapes ofMartinez. "I have seen when he was knocked out or knocked down and his eyes were white. He looked pretty good."

The reason for the bad blood between the two can be found in the different paths they have taken to this point.

Chavez, whose professional record stands at 46-0-1, with 32 knockouts, is the son and namesake of Mexico's most famous and celebrated fighter. He turned professional when he was 17 and made his Las Vegas debut in his fifth bout.

Martinez (49-2-2; 28), did not even visit a boxing gym until he was 20 He spent the first ten years of his career fighting mostly in Argentina and Spain. He relocated to the United States in 2007, and three years later defeated Kelly Pavlik to win the WBC middleweight title.

However, the WBC stripped him of the belt last year when he chose to fight Ukraine's Sergiy Dzinziruk instead of mandatory challenger Sebastian Zbik of Germany. Chavez then took over the title by beating Zbik.

Ever since, Martinez has been campaigning for a fight with Chavez, saying "the only reason he is the champion is that he is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, the son of the legend. His mouth is bigger than his brain; he's talking too much."

Chavez has responded to the taunts with insults of his own. "I am going to shut him up once and for all," he told reporters. "He is just a big clown."