Martinez proved a good Middleweight can indeed defeat a good Cruiserweight
This is what the viewers saw for the first 10 rounds on Saturday night. The punches thrown by Sergio Martinez (R) at Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (L) came from every conceivable angle. Photo: Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
For 11 rounds, Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KOs) gave previously unbeaten WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KOs) a boxing lesson. The light middleweight who currently resides in Oxnard, CA, weighed in the range of 155 to 160 pounds. His strategy involved circling to the right of the bigger man, moving away from his powerful right hand, while punishing him with stinging blows from every angle.
At the end of the fourth round, the color commentators started jumping on the Martinez bandwagon. Harold Letterman’s response, “Martinez is getting very comfortable with this kid. I’ve got it 60-54. He keeps outworking him.”
Jim Lampley, “He’s (Chavez Jr.) bleeding from both the mouth and nose.”
You could see the frustration on his face. Between the sixth and seventh round, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. lost control and yelled his concerns to the corner people of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. during his son’s WBC middleweight title fight. Photo: Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
The cameras kept zooming in on the faces of Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and Jr’s girlfriend, Frida Munoz Lopez. They told the home viewer how despairing or should we say how futile the situation had become. Between rounds seven and eight, Chavez Sr. was livid, up from his seat and shouting advice to the corner people.
By the ninth round, time was running out and Martinez showed no signs of tiring. Letterman added, “I would have never expected this.”
Then came an entirely new revelation from a fight fan, “He didn’t want to listen to his dad.”
An in-between round interview with trainer Freddie Roach added further insight, “We can’t keep up with him (Martinez). We need a knockout.”
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (L) is instructed to go to the neutral corner by referee Tony Weeks after knocking Sergio Martinez down in the twelfth round of their WBC middleweight title fight at the Thomas & Mack Center on September 15, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
Then in the final round, with 1:26 left in the final round, Martinez got careless and it nearly cost him the fight. For the millions watching on Pay Per View and the thousands at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, it was grand theatre. In the end, the shorter man won by surviving the seven to eight unanswered blows that sent him to the canvas twice.
You could tell, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was fast approaching the point when he would no longer be able to see out of his left eye. Photo: Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
With his left eye almost closed, Chavez’s accurate, power punches in the closing one minute and 26 seconds gave him a shot at casting aside all memory of the dismal performance in the first eleven rounds. He could have made up some excuse that he had just been biding his time for the dramatic finish. On the contrary, the credit for the dramatic finish belongs to Martinez who amazingly survived that final all or nothing onslaught.
As a saving grace, the comments at ringside were more patronizing, “Forget what I said earlier. If he’d of only fought a couple rounds like that. He had him on the floor.”
After all is said and done, the scores of 117-110, 118-109 and 118-109, all favoring Martinez, are the only lasting reminder that matters. As they say, ending up close, only matters in horseshoes and hand grenades.
After being crowned champion, Sergio Martinez salutes the cheering crowd. Photo: Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
Julio Cesar Chavez jr. at post fight press conference
The international flair of the superb undercard:
The former super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (26-1-1, 16 KOs) of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico regained his title by the slimmest of margins over Miguel Beltran Jr. (27-2, 17 KOs) of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico. Locked in a very close twelve round scrap, referee Russell Mora deducted a point from Beltran in Round #11 for a meaningless tap on the back of the head. Just seconds earlier, Martinez had done the very same thing. Unbeknownst at the time, that ruling turned the tide just enough to have two judges score the bout 114-113 in Rocky Martinez’s favor, otherwise they would have been scoring the bout 113-113 – a draw.
Also on the undercard, middleweight Matthew Macklin (29-4, 20 KOs) from Birmingham, West Midlands, UK pummeled his opponent, the former 154lb. world champion Joachim Alcine (33-3-1, 19 KOs) at 2:26 of the first round. In that round, Alcine who hails from Laval, Quebec, Canada by way of Gonaive, Haiti, was knocked down twice.
WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KOs) of Miami, Florida by way of Santiago, Cuba scored a 12 round unanimous decision over Robert Marroquin (22-2, 15 KOs) of Dallas, Texas. Rigondeaux was in charge throughout and Marroquin went down in both round #5 and round #12 en route to the 118-108 scores on all cards.
In a four round light heavyweight bout, Mike Lee (11-0, 6 KOs) of Chicago, Illinois defeated Paul Harness (4-4, 3 KOs) of St. Joseph, Missouri. Harness was tough but not as accurate as Lee who got a 40-36 sweep from all three judges.
Willie Nelson (19-1-1, 11 KOs) of Cleveland, Ohio not Nashville, Tenn. defeated John Jackson (13-1) to win the NABF super welterweight title with scores of 96-94, 96-94 and 98-92.
Super welterweight Michael Medina (26-3-2, 19 KOs) of Los Angeles, CA earned an 8 round shutout victory over James Winchester (15-5, 5 KOs) of Greensboro, North Carolina.
Welterweight contender Oyewale Omotoso lives in the U. S., grew up in Victoria, Australia and is an Australian national who was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He’s what you’d call an athletic of the world.
And finally, we have welterweight Wale Omotoso (23-0, 19 KOs) from Ferntree Gully, Victoria, Australia by way of Lagos, Nigeria putting on a strong performance to defeat Daniel Sostre (11-7-1, 4 KOs) who hales from Highland, New York by way of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico.
