Do You Think Martinez Will Retire?

Personally I think he will.

He's been injured from his last 2 fights and by many accounts lost a fight he wasn't expected to (haven't seen it myself).

He's 38 years old and if he returns early next year he will be 39. Age appears to be catching up with him.

With GGG's stock increasingly rising, by the time he returns many will demand this fight to determine top dog at MW, which he may not fancy at this stage of his career.

He's just come off a win in his home country in front of thousands so would be a perfect ending.

Money is the only thing which may keep him going as he was a late bloomer in terms of big fights and recognition.

Thoughts?

I don't think he will retire, but he needs to make absolutely sure that he is fully fit before coming back again.

Martinez has been a great fighter and a breath of fresh air in boxing.

He's one of my favourite fighters but just feel the time may be right to go out on top, we'll see.

He won't retire, IMO, but in my eyes he should. He looked really worn last time out, and I think he gets beat if he continues. That said, there is money in his name now, so I expect him to fight once or twice more for the $$. Probably GGG if his profile gets lifted enough in time Martinez is recovering.

Definitely agree that he should retire, I don't think he will, he is finally getting the adulation he deserves.

I think he needs a good 12 month hiatus to recover fully, he's been fighting at high tempo in every fight, and lets not forget that he didn't exactly look shot against Chavez Jr did he? Murray is a good boxer and hard to look good against because of his traditional style, he has no real standout qualities or weaknesses so Martinez wasn't able to knock him out or look as effective as he usually does.

I think he'll be able to regain his 12 round fitness after taking some time out and rediscover the reason we regard him as highly as we do. Think he tried to coast a little against Murray and you can't do that in this game.

JabMachineMK2 wrote:I think he needs a good 12 month hiatus to recover fully, he's been fighting at high tempo in every fight, and lets not forget that he didn't exactly look shot against Chavez Jr did he? Murray is a good boxer and hard to look good against because of his traditional style, he has no real standout qualities or weaknesses so Martinez wasn't able to knock him out or look as effective as he usually does.

I think he'll be able to regain his 12 round fitness after taking some time out and rediscover the reason we regard him as highly as we do. Think he tried to coast a little against Murray and you can't do that in this game.

He didn't look shot v Chavez, but Chavez stood in front of him all night long and then he had a long lay off. He is what, 38 now and he has had this knee surgery. He looked really poor v Murray and to me that is a sign of decline.

If he comes back and goes in with someone like GGG, he get's knocked out.

Dunno how you came to that decision Sean, Martinez hasn't been knocked out in his career (Margarito TKO aside which is a stoppage) and GGG hasn't fought anything close to Martinez.

Don't think he looked poor. He gets criminally underrated on these boards does Sergio - don't come back with the old "I actually think he's..." that people do either.

If he looked "really poor" then he'd have lost a wide UD. We take away from Murray if we say that, because although it was close (I had Martinez by 2 rounds, maybe 1 if I was harsh) but still believe Murray although better by some distance in the rounds he won, in the close rounds he just didn't have the edge. Murray fought the performance of his life that night, and against any other MW he'd have creamed them. He was unfortunately against someone special in Martinez.

Think theres a lot of unnecessary critisism levelled at Martinez here because of one night where he wasn't 10/10.

Depends on how you rate his opposition, hence why I think GGG beats him and have thought that since the Barker fight and the fall in form an injuries has made it easier for me to pick GGG

I don't rate Chavez Jr at all, the guy is a bully who has no movement, abysmal work rate and no jab and has had 10+ lbs advantage over every opponent he's been in wit and still struggles

Murray was the lowest of te British trio imo and while a good technical fighter, he isn't anything special and by keeping his guard high he negated most of Sergio's offence and let it slide by giving away the last 2 rounds

Sergio has never been the hardest to find but his brilliant conditioning and hand speed has made it so he can pull through and go up the gears

Golovkin can hit and hit very hard and I just can't see Sergio not getting hit, and with his age and wear on the body I don't think he has the conditioning, reflexes and speed to pull him through like he could do

Dibella had already rubbished a Golovkin fight so I don't that'll happen and that's the only real fight for him except Canelo at 154. I think he should consider retirement

I reckon he might wait for mayweather should he win against Canelo

If he was gonna retire I think he would have announced it by now. He has probably got 2 more fights in him. Big ones to rake in the cash I think regardless of the result

Can he make 154 safely though?

Granted he's a small middleweight but by the time he'll have his next fight, around April 2014 if reports are to believed, he wouldn't have fought at 154 for over 5 years when he fought Cintron in 2009. That's a long time to be moving down a weight division even if you are small at the weight

He trains like mad anyway so getting down to 154 at this stage of his career will be hard for him and he'll be very weak imo

The problem Sergio has is that his style only works when you keep it up, slow down or take a rest and you take a lot of punishment. He has to use constant movement so that he doesn't be made to pay by having his hands low and punches a lot to keep them at range, which is very very hard to do for 3 minutes of every round especially as you age

Doesnt really matter to him does it though WHu? one fight with mayweather = 2-3 fights with most others - he's after the bucks now.

Guess so, but i still doubt Floyd will ever fight Martinez as he does have 1 punch power still

The point was more about Canelo, who could really hurt him if Sergio comes in weight drained and weak as Canelo is quick and punches hard

Aye - I doubt he'd fight Canelo - but Mayweather can't hurt him

he came of great wins over pavlik and williams, looked punch perfect against dzinziruk and then really struggled (relatively anyways) against the english boys. then he looked amazing (barring the last round) against chavez jr, then against another brit looked poor again. im not sure if its age or the fact that he doesn't rate the brits highly enough or whether our boys are better than we credit them for but he doesn't seem fully motivated against opponents he should beat easily.

i also think martinez is underrated and should have had a shot at mayweather a long time ago.

I don't think he'll retire. He may aswell weight to see what happens GGG, Macklin, Canelo and Mayweather. There will be fights on offer too big to just walk away from.

Golovkins last two opponents records read: 20-6 and 24-9-2. Im not sure what he has done to substantially raise his stock. When I put up a thread mentioning that Martinez' last five opponents had a cumulative record of 173-4-1 (or something similar - Cant recall). Many here kept saying it means nothing relative to his opposition (i.e they fought bums). Golovkins last five reads:
20-6
24-9-2
29-2
20-8
23-4-2

Cumulatively 116-29-4... And yet we all gonna use that as evidence that he is now a superstar? Dont get me wrong, GGG looks the real deal, but using a Murray fight to criticize Martinez looks soft considering GGG's ledger.

Might as well retire...He's run out of Brits to slap around..........

I don't get why people think he's underrated

He is a very good fighter and has been among the top of the p4p lists for the last couple years, and everyone has ranked him as the top middleweight

He is 38, he has been injured a lot and he looked the worst he's looked for a while against Murray

Certainly can't see Sergio Martinez retiring.

He waited along time to get the recognition his talent and skills deserves.

Only in his last few fights has he raked in the huge pay cheques.

Martinez was going to fight Geale after the Murray fight, but injury out that on ice.

I can see Martinez fighting the winner of Barker Geale sometime next year.

Then one last mega payday, either Chavez Jr rematch, Canelo or Cotto.

Needs to retire..........Scraped past an ordinary Brit last time........Hit the canvas hard against JC and tasted canvas against Macklin........

He isn't that good.........A pot shotting southpaw and he's getting past it.

Not after last night......HBo will be on the phone for one big last payday..

Do you think after his last few fights against the Brits, Sergio really believes he can dethrone the GGG momentum to stay on top. I believe if he takes the fight he loses, and he knows it, so I would be just that 1 last big payday!

Or he could still retire claiming to be the best at his weight, which although some may question at the very very very end of his career, but couldn't prove otherwise.

I think HBO realise they have a star and Martinez would be a great coming out fight...

He isn't ready for Ward and their fight isn't big enough.....

Martinez has bottle and would get a few million..

Gennady only got $350k last night and Macklin got $300k so its hard to see how Martinez will make good money from that fight as that isn't an awful lot. Martinez only made $1.5mil against Chavez who is a huge draw unlike Golovkin so I doubt he'd get a few million

I think HBO would feed Sergio to Golovkin, but I'd imagine that Dibella would be less inclined to make that fight as he losses everything on that fight whereas HBO are the real winners

Sergio will be looking at a Chavez Jr fight next year as its more winnable and more lucrative than GGG would be

It's a unification and Golovkin has destroyed a respected middle...