Chavez Jr. vs. Martinez

By Emilio Camacho, Esq. In life, some people have it better than others. For various reasons, not everyone has the same opportunities and access to resources. In this respect boxing is no different.

In boxing, having the right equipment, training facilities, nutrition, sparring partners, and money to cover personal expenses while training, can make a big difference in the performance of an athlete. This is an aspect of a boxer’s performance that is not readily apparent during the match.

On the one hand, Sergio Martinez represents one aspect of this idea. Martinez has stated that, in the year 2000, after paying all expenses, he made about $900 for fighting Antonio Margarito. Martinez was already in his third year as a professional boxer. He has often recounted how difficult it was to live and train with such a low budget while trying to compete at a world-class level. To this extent, it is remarkable that he has been able to reach the highest level of the sport. Today, Martinez is able to afford high-level training camps, nutritionists, quality sparring partners, and even a personal tailor to promote his image. In short, Martinez made it to the highest level under significant adverse conditions that often break the boxing career of many others.

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By Emilio Camacho, Esq. First, let me say that, of course, I know that Chavez did not win the fight. In fact, Martinez gave him the worst beating of his career. However, in the 12th round, Chavez Jr. took us back in history and most boxing experts were thinking about Chavez v. Taylor. Also, other fans, mostly Mexicans, started longing for the days when 15 round fights were norm.

This fight resembled a tight race where the leader is losing ground, an opponent is closing in, and everyone is wondering whether he or she can keep the lead until the finish line.

What is most amazing is how, in one round, Chavez was able to make us forget about the other 11. This is why I say that Chavez, metaphorically, won the fight. In the end, it was a great fight and
both boxers were winners. More significantly, all the fans won because fights like these do not happen very often.

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By Marcus Richardson: Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s) was forced to fight that last eight rounds of his bout with WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) with a broken left hand last Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fighting with mostly just his right hand, Martinez was still able to pound out a relatively easy 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 117-110, 118-109, 118-109.

Martinez’s trainer Pablo Sarmiento said to ESPN “I’d offer credit for not showing that he [Martinez] was compromised [injured] during the tussle. He suffered a broken left hand in round four.”

For boxing fans who don’t know already, Martinez is left-handed and his left is his bread and butter punch that he uses to knockout most of his opponents. With his left hand badly broken, Martinez was unable to get maximum power on his left hand power shots the way he wanted to against Chavez Jr.

With how easy it was for Chavez Jr. to be hit last Saturday it’s scary to imagine what Martinez would have been able to do to him had he had two good hands instead of just his right. This is why Martinez was forced to jab Chavez Jr. so often in the fight because his left hand was out of commission in terms of power punching.

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By Marcus Richardson: In looking at how utterly clueless Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) was last night in trying to deal with the little bit of movement that Sergio Martinez showed him in winning an lopsided 12 round unanimous decision, it became painfully clear that Chavez Jr’s days as a championship caliber fighter will probably be over once he can no longer make weight for the middleweight division. When the time comes that Chavez Jr. can no longer melt down 180+ to 160 lbs to fight smaller middleweights, I think it’s going to be all over for him in terms of a champion type fighter.

Chavez Jr. is likely going to be completely lost at super middleweight, because those guys are going almost as big as him, but as so much more skilled, versatile and mobile. To be sure, there are some guys that don’t move very well at 168 lbs, like Carl Froch, but he makes up for it by his ability to throw counter shots as soon as he’s hit. But Chavez Jr. showed last night that he’s a fighter with a fighting style from a bygone era that just doesn’t have a place against well schooled fighters that know how to move.

Chavez Jr’s fans are celebrating the fact that he got a knockdown of a much smaller Martinez in the 12th, but he couldn’t even finish him off because of his lack hand speed and footwork.

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