By: Chris Robinson
Las Vegas Boxing Examiner

Brick City Boxing’s Danny Serratelli and Sergio Martinez

When thinking of pound for pound stalwarts Manny Pacquiao and Sergio Martinez, some parallels between the two men arise, such as their left-handed stature, ability to throw punches in bunches from an awkward attack, viscous nature inside of the ring, and overall temperaments as fighters. But, while one would expect each to have a serious amount of respect for the other, it has been Martinez who has fired some verbal salvos at Pacquiao in recent times.

Martinez burst onto the American scene in October of 2008 with a near-flawless 8th round destruction over Congo’s Alex Bunema in Temecula, California while Pacquiao crossed the threshold over to super stardom a few months later by moving up in weight and belting Oscar De La Hoya over eight-one sided rounds. From that point forward each man has produced their share of jaw-dropping moments inside of the squared circle, with Martinez moving up boxing’s ladder as Pacquiao held firm to his mantle as the sport’s premier fighter.

More of Pacquiao, Martinez, and several other boxing stars such as Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins, Mike Tyson, Joshua Clottey, Miguel Cotto, Andre Berto and countless others in Howard Schatz’s exclusive gallery

When I caught up with Martinez at last month’s ‘Action Heroes’ card headlined by Marcos Maidana vs. Erik Morales inside of the MGM Grand, he was looking dapper as always an opened up about his aspirations in the sport and where he feels he stands at the moment.

“He’s the best fighter at this moment,” Martinez said of Pacquiao. “He’s the number one now but he has only a short time to be number one. But he has all my respect.”

Fair enough but the Argentinean’s words during a recent conversation with John Martinez of Boxscorenews.com paints somewhat of a different picture. Weighing in with his feelings on Pacquiao’s most recent performance, a lackluster but dominating unanimous decision over Shane Mosley earlier this month, Martinez didn’t refrain from some disparaging remarks.

“[Pacquiao] didn’t show much to me in his last fight with Shane Mosley, which I thought was boring,” Martinez continued. “Manny Pacquiao is working his business by picking boxers he knows he can beat and are pretty close to retirement. He is picking guys that are easy to beat, so when you do this, it isn’t hard to be pound-for-pound.”

Despite being stripped of the WBC middleweight crown he so emphatically lifted from Kelly Pavlik last April, Martinez is recognized widely as the world’s best fighter at 160 pounds. A matchup with Pacquiao, who started his career at 106 pounds and now holds the WBO welterweight crown, may just be fantasy because of the discrepancy in weight but that didn’t stop ‘Maravilla’ from giving yet another bold statement.

“If we fought I would beat him by knock out,” Martinez said of Pacquiao.
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Surprisingly, it has always been undefeated Floyd Mayweather whom Martinez has gushed with respect. Martinez is adamant that Floyd would give him more of a run for his money than Pacquiao if that particular fight ever went down.

“Mayweather would be a better fight I think because he is physically bigger than Pacquiao and can carry the 154 pounds better than Pacquiao,” stated Martinez. “With Mayweather, I think this would be the most difficult fighter of my career and I see it going the distance and being judged on points, but together we would put on a good show.”

Martinez definitely knows how to grab some headlines but his focus for the moment will soon turn to his next ring outing, which looks to be taking place sometime this fall. Martinez is passionate about facing the winner of next month’s bout between WBC middleweight titleholder Sebastian Zbik and young Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. but is prepared for whatever else may come his way.

“I will fight on October 1st and it will either be Marco Antonio Rubio or Zbik because I think Zbik will win. And even if he doesn’t win, Chavez won’t fight me anyway. Its probably looking like I’ll fight Zbik next.”

Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at Trimond@aol.com