Sergio Gabriel Martinez: The new Pound for Pound King?

With current boxing climate becoming at large static lately, the emergence of Sergio Martinez has gone relatively unnoticed.

Marvailla, now at the age of 36, has of late elevated his status by scoring a one sided UD victory over Kelly Pavlik, destroying Paul Williams by R2 KO and defeating the previously undefeated and highly regarded Segiy Dzinziruk by a stoppage in R8.

Whereas, Manny Pacquiao, despite his brilliance, appears to be moving into the low risk high return category of opposition it’s been highly refreshing to see someone of Sergio Martinez’s calibre take on the toughest challenges available to him and looking unbeatable in the process.

Does his recent success deserve him of the number 1 P4P spot?

If Martinez does decide to go up north to the stacked 168lb division he would be more than a match for the likes of Arthur Abraham, Carl Froch and maybe even Andre Ward/ Lucian Bute. He has more than enough power, chin and silky skills to cause a stir.

Maybe his only constraint is his age, but it will be interesting to see if he is able to capitalise on his stock in the boxing world.

Thoughts?

I think he should be considered yes, not many people on here think that though...

Did you watch the Pavlik fight, it was cose fight, the cut Pavlik suffer in the 8/9th swung the fight Martinez's way.

By no means was this fight one sided.

D4, pavlik won a few rounds and he also cut Pavlik with a punch. He battered him at the end and that wasn't due to the cuts. He would have lost anyway. Martinez only started throwing combinations in the championship rounds. This guy is extremely intelligent. Pavlik took a hammering in the final rounds could make a case for a few 10-8's

I know it was a punch, Pavlik was comming back into the fight in the middle rounds and put Martinez down, seemed to get the jab going if I remember the fight. And then the cut happened and the fight swung back into Martinez's favour.

No matter how you look at it, the fight was not one sided.

Pavlik also struggled with the weight and been having problems with drink and had been in rehab.

In other words someone is making a pathetic attempt to play down what was for Martinez a very decent win. The same person who's chuffed to bits that a Filipino fella is due to fight Benjamin Button...

What I object to is calling the fight one sided which it clearly wasn't.

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php?title=Fight:1493223

Clearly not a one sided fight. Martinez won by 3-4 rounds on my card.

Pavlik is hardly significantly less shot than Mosely/Margarito. The guys career went rapidly downhill after Hopkins.

Mosely might be older but at least he isnt a raging alcoholic who almost died in hospital.

You can only make a case for Martinez being number 1 if you employ strict time limits which favour Martinez. Namely basing it on 2010 primarily. 2009 was a poor year for Martinez and prior to that his record was solid but not worthy of top 5 material.

Other than 2010 results, Pacquiao is ahead in almost every other aspect. Whilst Martinez has more than cemented his status as a top 5 fighter now I cant help feel people are getting a bit carried away if they are going to rate him number 1. Are wins over a Pavlik, Williams and Dzinzurik really worthy of top dog status?

Because Pacquiao is the top guy and biggest star hes subjected to massive scrutiny. His last few fights might not be as good as hoped and you can argue he has taken his foot off the gas to an extent but if we are to apply "Pacquiao" levels of scrutiny to Martinez last few oppponents then then they look less spectacular also.

As mentioned above, it could be argued Pavliks career was basically off the rails. He had suffered a Margarito style beating to Hopkins and then was plagued by injury, health and alcohol problems. Williams was a good avenging but he had also looked fairly average in his bout with Cintron and Dzinzurik was unbeaten but not really top level p4p material and few big wins to his name.

If pacquiao fights marquez, bradley etc. I have no problem having him as number 1. Then again he is the face of boxing.

There's little argument. Pac is the man now as Floyd is out of action. Martinez is good, but put them in the ring at the same weight (hypothetical not stipulations) then Pac wins. It would be close as Martinez is a decent counter puncher and we all know that Pac has a huge weakness for counter-punchers. But the volume and frenzied aproach Pac brings will ensure a points win.