After a steady decline in his last few fights culminating in his lopsided loss to Miguel Cotto in June, the oft-injured Sergio Martinez’s career now hangs in the balance.
With a couple of knee surgeries over the past few years that have visibly affected his career and he now awaits a medical evaluation to decide whether he’ll be able to fight ever again.
IF he has to hang up his gloves once and for all he will go down as one of the best fighters of this generation and him starting boxing when he was already 20 years old makes all his accomplishments all the more impressive.
With a stellar record of 51-3-2 with 28 KOs over a 19-year career with victories over such fighters as Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Paul Williams, Kelly Pavlik, Martinez is a worthy candidate to be inducted to the International Boxing Hall of Fame when he does retire.
In his last bout against Cotto, Martinez never got any real offensive attack going and was destroyed by a rejuvenated Cotto. The fight before that, Martinez arguably lost to Martin Murray, but the hometown cooking of his native Argentina let him escape with a win.
Both of the bouts are after Martinez started suffering chronic injuries and those setbacks obviously hurt his fight game.
No matter what, Martinez has been a solid pro and gave credit where credit was due making him one of the more likable fighters in a sport full of shady figures.
