Sergio Gabriel Martínez

Sergio Martínez
Data
Birth Name	Sergio Gabriel Martínez
Fight name	Maravilla
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	Argentinian
birthday	February 21, 1975
place of birth	Quilmes
style	Southpaw
size	178 cm
Combat Statistics
Struggles	56
Victories	51
Knockout victories	28
Defeats	3
draw	2
Profile in the BoxRec database

Sergio Gabriel Martínez (born February 21, 1975 in Quilmes , Province of Buenos Aires ) is a former Argentinian professional boxer and multiple world champion of the IBO , WBC and WBO associations . According to independent rankings from BoxRec and Ring Magazine , he has long been considered number 1 in the middleweight division.

Amateur career

Martínez only started boxing at the age of 21 and has played 41 amateur fights in a year and a half. He was twice Argentine champion and was voted Argentina's youngster boxer of the year. In 1997 he took part in the World Championships in Budapest without international experience , defeated the Finn Jani Rauhala prematurely in the preliminary round and was only defeated in the round of 16 just under 9:11 against the experienced Romanian and later Olympian Adrian Diaconu . This was the only defeat in his amateur career. During this impressive amateur time, his battle name “Maravilla”, in English “miracle”, came about.

Professional career

In 1997 he switched to the professional camp, started in the welterweight division and was able to win his first 17 fights except for a draw with Mario Javier Nieva. He also beat Gabriel Leonidas Leiva (3-0), Ignacio Ramón Cáceres (5-0), Paulo Alejandro Sanchez (24-4) and Ariel Gabriel Chaves (38-4). His first defeat finally overtook him on February 19, 2000 against the extremely strong Mexican and later two-time WBO and IBF world champion Antonio Margarito , when he lost to a technical knockout in round 7.

But then began a sustained winning streak that left him undefeated in the next 29 fights. On June 21, 2003 he was with a points victory over the British Richard Williams (17-1), new IBO world champion in the light middleweight division and successfully defended the title against Adrian Stone (33-4), as well as in a rematch against Richard Williams.

Martínez then resigned the title to box the interim world title of the more important association WBC, which he finally secured on October 4, 2008 with a spectacular victory over Alex Bunema (30-5). Bunema was not up to the fight from the beginning, was repeatedly driven into the ropes and seemed unable to defend, before the ring doctor intervened and took Bunema out of the fight, badly marked.

Martínez then successfully defended the title in a controversial draw against former IBF world champion Kermit Cintrón (30-2). Martínez dominated the fight and scored significantly more hits (151: 103), while Cintrón suffered a bloody cut over the left eye and even had to go down in round 7 and was counted. Cintrón did not get up until 10 and was consequently waved off by the referee, but Cintrón then claimed that he had been headbutted to the ground and complained heavily about the fight being abandoned. After some tumult in and outside the ring, the fight was finally continued, as the referee Frank Santore suddenly claimed that Cintrón was already back on his feet at 9 and that he (Santore) had not stopped the fight at all. In the slow-motion repetition, however, it was clearly visible that the impact was caused by a strong left hand to the temple and the heads of the two never touched. In the last round Martínez received a point deduction for hitting the back of the head, which led to the controversial draw.

Martínez was finally appointed in May 2009 by the interim, reigning WBC world champion, because the actual world champion Vernon Forrest was injured and had not defended his title for too long. He then moved to the next higher weight class, middleweight, and was defeated there on December 5, 2009 by the US American and ex-world champion Paul Williams (37-1) on points. Both boxers were knocked down in the first round, Williams also suffered a bloody cut on the face.

But already in his next fight on April 17, 2010 he defeated the double world champion Kelly Pavlik (36-1) unanimously on points and became the new WBC and WBO world middleweight champion. Martínez went down once on lap 7, but insisted that he just slipped. Pavlik, on the other hand, could not cope with Martínez's speed, could not bring in any clear impact hits and boxed from the 9th round with a blood-smeared face, as he had sores on both eyebrows. Sergio Martínez became the first Argentine middleweight world champion since 1972. However, since he also had the WBC world title in light middleweight, but it is forbidden according to world championship rules to have world titles in two weight classes, he would have within ten days have to report to the WBO to announce in which weight class he now wants to remain champion. However, since he let this deadline pass, the WBO world title was withdrawn and thus vacant. A week later he announced that he wanted to remain middleweight champion, so the WBC light middleweight title became vacant. Thus he remained WBC middleweight world champion.

He successfully defended this title on November 20, 2010 with a spectacular knockout in round 2 over his former conqueror Paul Williams.

In January 2011, the WBC title was surprisingly withdrawn from him because he refused to compete against the mandatory challenger and interim world champion Sebastian Zbik . Zbik became the new WBC middleweight world champion without a fight.

On March 12, 2011 he won by technical knockout in the 8th round over the previously undefeated former WBO world champion Serhij Dsindsiruk (37-0) and thus received the Diamond title of the WBC. On October 1, 2011, he won by knockout in the 11th round over the also undefeated (23-0) European champion Darren Barker . On March 17, 2012 he defeated the former European champion Matthew Macklin (28-3) by technical knockout in round 11.

Zbik had meanwhile lost the WBC title to the Mexican Julio César Chávez junior (46-0). This initially completed three title defenses and then challenged Martínez to a fight that took place on September 15, 2012 in Las Vegas. Martínez won the fight over 12 rounds by unanimous decision. On April 27, 2013, he defended the title unanimously against Martin Murray (25-0).

On June 7, 2014, he lost the WBC title completely surprisingly in Madison Square Garden in New York to the challenger Miguel Cotto (38-4) from Puerto Rico, who boxed middleweight for the first time. Martínez went down three times in the first round and had to take heavy hits over the next few rounds without even scoring points, which is why the fight was stopped after the ninth round in favor of Cotto. This was the last fight of his career.

Title and successes as a professional

Welterweight

• 2000: WBO Latino Champion
• 2001: Argentine champion

Light middleweight

• June 21, 2003: IBO World Champion (2 title defenses, then resigned to box for WBC titles)
• 2005 and 2006: WBC Latino Champion
• October 4, 2008: WBC World Champion (1 title defense)

medium weight

• April 17, 2010: WBC and WBO world champion (WBO title withdrawn because he already held WBC title in two weight classes, which is against the rules of the WBO, WBC title withdrawn because he did not compete for the title defense)
• March 12, 2011: WBC Diamond Champion (2 title defenses)
• September 15, 2012: WBC World Champion (1 title defense)

Awards

For 2009 he was awarded the title "Boxer of the Year" by the World Boxing Council .

His knockout win over Paul Williams was voted "Knockout of the Year 2010" by Ring Magazine . He was also named Boxer of the Year for 2010 by Ring Magazine and the Boxing Writers Association of America .

In 2012, Martínez surprisingly won the Argentine Sportsman of the Year election ahead of Lionel Messi .

predecessor	title	successor
Vernon Forrest	World Light Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) May 21, 2009 - June 2010	Manny Pacquiao

predecessor	Office	successor
Kelly Pavlik	Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) April 17, 2010 - January 2011	Sebastian Zbik

predecessor	Office	successor
Kelly Pavlik	Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) April 17, 2010 - June 2010	Dmitry Pirog

predecessor	Office	successor
Julio Chavez	Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) September 15, 2012 - June 7, 2014	Miguel Cotto

Web links

• Sergio Gabriel Martínez in the BoxRec database
• Ring Magazine World Middleweight Ranking
• World ranking in middleweight division on BoxingRecord

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Carsten Harms: Universum professional Zbik declared world champion. In: The world . January 19, 2011, accessed January 12, 2014 . 
2. ↑ Morten König: Sergio Martinez is Argentina's Sportsman of the Year. (No longer available online.) In: Boxing Today. December 20, 2012, archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; Retrieved May 13, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.