News and Notes: The Drama that was Sergio Martinez vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

What a fight. Even as I make my way back to Atlanta this early Sunday morning, I’m still on a high from last night’s electric atmosphere and clash beetwen middleweights Sergio Martinez  and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Although the fight was one-sided in rounds and scoring, a Round of the Year contender in the 12th and rabid Mexican and Argentinian fans had the Thomas & Mack Center on fire even hours before the main event started. Let’s get started on all the news and notes coming out of Sin City.

MARAVILLA’S VICTORY TAKES A HUGE PHYSICAL TOLL

Sergio Martinez put on an amazing performance last night. First, he flawlessly outboxed a younger fighter that came into the ring close to the cruiserweight limit. Many times Sergio had his opponent backing up from his own power. When Junior unleashed those hooks that caused Martinez’s head to do a 180 in the 12th, I was thinking Martinez was done by how slowly he rose and electing to slug toe to toe. Instead, he traded with Junior in spots and amazingly succeeded in halting Chavez’s attacks. Martinez held at times but not as much as he should have considering how badly he was hurt. That fact the knockdown happened early and Martinez was able to survive says a lot about his heart and conditioning.

The full extent of Martinez’s heart and bravery were learned earlier this morning, with reports coming from ESPN via Martinez’s camp that the fighter suffered torn ligaments in his right knee and a broken left hand. In addition, he required stitches to close that flowing cut above his left eye and several staples were done to close a gash on his head. Those of you who saw the fight will recall Martinez fell hard and got up slowly in the late rounds and could be seen shaking his left hand. You have to wonder if those injuries provided the perfect storm for Chavez to nearly steal the fight in the 12th.

CHAVEZ KEEPS HIS MEXICO STAR STATUS IN DEFEAT

After an 11th round where Martinez took his best shots and had him backing up to close, Chavez Jr. looked headed to a complete shutout defeat. I noted a good number of the Mexican faithful exiting that area (shame on them). That 12th round redeemed him in the eyes of every Mexican fan in attendance. They celebrated as if Junior had won; the arena was literally rumbling at the bell. Junior himself relished the “moral victory” and wore a huge smile on his face when he ascended the ropes to cheers.

As unfair as it may be, timing and the old adage of “it’s not how you start but how you finish” applies here in spades. Had Chavez’s rally happened in any other round, no one would even be considering a rematch. But because it closed the fight, Chavez and his fans can claim with more time Martinez could have been taken out (ignoring the fact Martinez was back to boxing and recovered by the round’s end).

IS IT SAFE FOR CHAVEZ TO STAY AT 160?

Let’s be frank; Chavez Jr. LOOKED SICK at Friday’s weigh-in. According to a source from the Chavez camp, Junior was six pounds over the middleweight limit on Wednesay, dropped eight pounds to weigh in at 158 on Friday only to be over 180 pounds 24 hours later last night. How many times can he continue to put his body through this? We know Top Rank doesn’t want Chavez competing against the beasts at super-middleweight, but keeping him at 160 is dangerous. The man could barely stand at Friday’s weigh-in and was damn near skeletal around the waist.

IF NO REMATCH, WHAT’S NEXT?

Bob Arum is already beating the drums about a rematch at Dallas Stadium. But knee injuries are bad, so it’s not out of the question that we don’t see Martinez in the ring again until around this time next year. And if that’s the case, he’ll want a tune-up to test that right knee and his movement before rematching Junior. What would Julio do in the meantime? Kelly Pavlik told me in July he’d love to face the Martinez-JCC Jr. winner, so with Sergio out this would be fan-friendly, brutal alternative battle.  Neither guy likes to chase and wouldn’t have to. As another plus, both guys are Top Rank so it’s an easy make. If not, Junior could look to face another slugger in Gennady Golovkin, who made a splash in his HBO debut earlier this month.

Let’s also not forget Martinez’s words to Junior during their Face Off that he’d be nipping at Mayweather’s heels with a victory. The 37 year old may be looking to cash out, should Floyd fancy it, with a Mayweather fight in 2013 to close his career.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7f7e1RKjYw&feature=youtube_gdata_player]

Undercard Notes: As much as I like and appreciate Guillermo Rigondeaux’s skill, his unanimous decision win over Roberto Marroquin gave guys like Nonito Donaire and Abner Mares another reason to avoid him. He’s such an adept counter-puncher that many times he doesn’t have to come out of first gear and he’s completely fine with just outboxing a guy and making it a sparring session. Rigondeaux did just that last night when he should have been focused in making an in-ring statement to rivals like Donaire.

Matthew Macklin must have wanted to see Martinez-Junior as badly as the rest of us because he wasted no time in bombing out Joachim Alcine with two knockdowns in the opening round. Many, myself included, expected this to be a solid fight. This was an excellent comeback for Macklin, who was last seen being stopped in 11 rounds in March by Sergio Martinez.

Roman Martinez and Miguel Beltran put on a good scrap with a highly-competitive split decision that went Martinez’s way. Beltran was the harder puncher throughout and almost had Martinez out of there in the fourth behind his powerful hooks. Although clearly at a power disadvantage, Martinez always kept his hands moving and that paid dividends in the close rounds as the judges just barely sided with his activity. And that point deduction in the 9th Beltran received for rabbit punching was huge considering that was also a round Beltran had won.

 

That’s all from Vegas. Overall, how do you rate last night’s Martinez-Chavez Jr. PPV?