Sergio Martinez vs. Matthew Macklin - St. Pat's day fight thread

[armin]

I'd rather see Sergio win this fight first than speculate on his next choice of opponent, but Daniel Geale has stated he wants to come to the US for his next fight. If HBO would pay for Geale at 160 that may be the best available option out there. Chavez Jr. won't be fighting Martinez next, let's all be honest with ourselves.

Right, Sergio needs to focus on Macklin, which I'm sure he is, just saying, if Martinez gets by Macklin, why not call Chavez Jr. out on the big stage after the fight? It might put enough pressure on "Team Chavez", to get the fight in motion. Freddy Roach has already said Jr. is ready to fight Martinez, so let's get it on, a "Champion" is suppose to fight the best no?

Freddy also said in a recent interview that he would prefer Chavez Jr. to face Canelo in his next fight to make money and then afterward have the winner take on Martinez. Arum has also, more than once, that he wants Chavez Jr. to face someone like Martin Murray or Andy Lee before taking on Martinez. I doubt they take on Martinez. Even if they think they can beat Martinez, it's a riskier fight than Murray or Alvarez, and with Murray/Lee, they probably make close to the same amount of money for the fight, with Alvarez they make more.

In my opinion, and I could be wrong, but Martinez doesn't really care about the belt; he wants to fight Chavez Jr. because he is a bigger pay day than fighting Macklin, Barker or Dzinziruk. He wanted Cotto for the same reason and its the same reason why he faced Pavlik and Williams. Facing Cotto, Chavez Jr. or Canelo probably doubles his normal pay day.

Who wins in a fight between Geale or Lee and Chavez Jr.? Those are good fights too.

I think you have great points. I'd like to see if Chavez could last against Martinez. But what the hell is this Diamond belt title BS? It was suppose to be just a trophy wasn't it? Now it looks like it's being peddled? Has the WBC tried collect a sanctioning fee yet?

I may be incorrect, but I believe they are not fighting for a belt in this fight, other than the Ring Magazine belt because Sergio dropped the diamond belt in favor of fighting Chavez Jr. for the regular belt.

Chavez Jr. is a huge pressure fighting middleweight. I know he gets a ton of hate, and some of it is deserved, but he'd be a tough outing for a lot of middleweights. For example, I'm high on Proksa, but Proksa is a small middleweight, like Sergio, but without the experience. He stands about 5'9 and isn't huge. I imagine Chavez Jr would be a challenge for Proksa just given the size disparity.

That is true but then again zbik who's just average sizewise and skillwise gave junior hell n that fight could well have been a draw if he wasn't named chavez...don't think sergio would have to many problems even if jr probably would outweigh him by twenty pnds on fightnight