The judges couldn't deny Sergio Martinez this time. The WBC junior middleweight champ moved up in weight to take the WBC and WBO middleweight belts from Kelly Pavlik by twelve round unanimous decision in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Martinez used his superior boxing skills to set the pace over the bout's first four rounds, opening a cut over Pavlik's right eye. However, in rounds five through eight, Pavlik seemed to have figured out the slick Martinez and began setting the pace and landing heavy shots, including one which knocked down an off-balance Martinez in round seven.
Then, with Pavlik seemingly having established control of the fight, Martinez roared back again in round nine, opening a cut above Pavlik's right eye. The inability of Pavlik's corner to get that cut under control may have cost their boxer a chance at winning the fight. Pavlik bled profusely throughout the remainder of the bout and, after the fight, confirmed that he was having difficulty seeing out of his right eye. To his credit, Martinez - who was robbed by the judges in his last two fights (in a loss to Paul Williams and a draw with Kermit Cintron) - didn't take anything for granted and dominated rounds ten, eleven and twelve to put the fight out of reach.
The judges got this one right with all three in favor of Martinez: 116-111, 115-111 and 115-112. Pavlik has a rematch clause in the contract so expect to see Martinez-Pavlik II some time later this year.
Comments
Kelly put on a good performance up until the point where he gave up. He had success countering Sergio, then after the bad cut, seemed to give up. Maybe he couldn’t see like he said. Either way, he has some soul searching to do given his comments to his corner.
Sergio was fairly impressive. He reminds me of a Kassim Ouma type. Not really powerful, but overwhelming and fast.
Ben has it just right. Most of the fire seems gone from Pavlik, and Martinez gave a great performance, not as good when he really beat Paul Williams, but good enough. I suspect that the loss to Bernard Hopkins may have taken an emotional toll on Pavlik, or perhaps the apparent turmoil in his personal life has sapped his enthusiasm for the sport. Never a very innovative boxer, Pavlik always showed determination and a will to win. That was all lost in the fight. He really needs to rethink what he wants to do; boxing is too dangerous a game to just go through the motions.