by Robert Jackson: Paul Williams has trouble with southpaws, and Sergio Martinez made that perfectly clear this past Saturday. Floyd Mayweather in pursuit of a Manny Pacquiao fight has consistently attempted to ‘one-up’ the P4P king. Here again is an opportunity for Floyd to ‘one-up’ the 8-division champ by signing to fight middleweight champ Sergio Martinez. Berto won’t do it, perhaps Williams was a little bit overrated and overlooking Martinez, in any case he won’t do it either, nor will Saul Alvarez, Matthew Hatton or Mayweather fighting any of the other ‘usual suspects’..
Mayweather has recently made his living off of perfectly matched and/or timed fights where the outcome in most cases is known, the exception being the Mosley fight. Here now is a case where Mayweather can AGAIN silence his doubters, naysayers and critics, and by winning snatch back the negotiating advantage he gained with his win over Sugar Shane Mosley, which has recently been eclipsed by Pacquiao’s beatdown of Antonio Margarito. Who knows maybe after defeating Martinez, 7 days becomes 0 days and the big fight everyone wants to see is on.
Martinez has said he will fight Floyd, but not under 155lbs, Floyd can come into this fight at 150lbs like he did for Oscar De La Hoya. This is just speculation but I don’t think Martinez will have a problem with testing up to and including the day of the fight. Martinez has also said that Pacquiao is too small for him, which in my opinion is code for Floyd to make a fight against him. Martinez is looking for a BIG fight and Floyd needs a fight to comply with the unspoken rule of boxing which is ‘what have you done for me lately’ and to enhance his legacy, and unless Floyd intends on retiring for good all of his options outside of Pacquiao lead to Sergio Martinez. Furthermore fighting the southpaw Martinez who is a quick and mobile middleweight with power, Mayweather gets a good tune-up fight to face Pacquiao who is also a quick mobile southpaw with power.
As a Mayweather fan I see no other route towards an eventual fight with Pacquiao that doesn’t include Sergio Martinez.