Straight Writes and Jabs: An Inside Look at Another Year in Boxing

Martinez-Chavez: Peaks and Valleys

For many boxing insiders, the September 15, 2012, match-up between Sergio Martinez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr was the most-anticipated fight of the year. Martinez-Chavez: Peaks and Valleys An athlete’s life is characterized by peaks and valleys. When Sergio Martinez was seventeen years old, he played forward in the #7 slot for a team called Defensoris in a junior amateur football (soccer ) league in the province of Buenos Aires. Two days before his September 15, 2012, middleweight championship fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in LasVegas, Martinez sat in his suite at The Wynn Resort and Casino and recalled those days. “We were playing against a team called Sportman,” Sergio said.“It was a tournament that was important for me to play well in.There were a lot of professional scouts in the stands. If I did well, it could take me places.” “I was very inspired that day,” Martinez reminisced.“We won 4 to 0, and I scored three goals.On the first goal,there was a free throw from one of my teammates and I lifted it in an arc with my right foot over the goalie.That put us ahead in the score.The next goal was my best of the game.I stopped the ball with my chest,dribbled it past four defenders,and scored on a finesse kick with my right foot.The third goal was at the end of the game.Their goalie was at midfield. I got the ball, dribbled all the way in, and scored on an empty net.After each goal, everyone was celebrating and hugging. It was an incredible feeling.” “I wasn’t born with the instincts that a great football player has,” Sergio continued.“My technique wasn’t good, but I was fast and strong. My emotions were my Achilles heel. I was very emotional when I played football.The next game was for the championship.There was a tie and the game went to penalty kicks. If I make my kick, we play on. If I miss it, we lose. “I placed the ball down in front of the goal,” Sergio recalled.“Then I got nervous.The goalie got bigger and bigger in my mind and the goal STRAIGHT WRITES AND JABS 45 got smaller and smaller. I kicked the ball and it went slowly to the goalie, right to his hands. He didn’t even have to move to field it. I was humiliated and embarrassed. It was one of the worst moments of my life. Because of my failure, we lost the championship game. I was so devastated that I quit the team.” Martinez has come a long way in the world of sports since then. Three years later, at age twenty, he walked into a boxing gym for the first time. He’s now thirty-seven years old with a record of 50 wins, 2 losses, and 2 draws. For the past two years, regardless of the games that sanctioning bodies play, he has been widely recognized as THE middleweight champion of the world. He won the crown on April 17, 2010, with a twelve-round decision over Kelly Pavlik and successfully defended it with knockout victories over PaulWilliams, Sergeiy Dzinziruk, Darren Barker, and Matthew Macklin. With roots in Buenos Aires, Madrid, and California, he gives special meaning to the phrase “world” champion. Martinez has been hardened by his journey through life, but there’s a warmth about him. He’s comfortable in the spotlight but doesn’t seek it out. He’s an advocate for women who have been subjected to domestic violence and for children who’ve been the target of bullying in school. “A world-class fighter doesn’t have to act like a thug,” Sergio says.“As a professional athlete who is in the public eye, I have a duty to speak out on behalf of people who need help and are not heard.When I was a boy, I had a pale face and was small. I always tried to do the right thing and stay out of trouble, so I was picked on a lot.” Martinez also has a sense of humor.Recounting the many jobs he held as his ring career moved slowly forward, he notes, “Working on roofs helped a lot with my footwork.You have to be very careful not to fall off.” Julio Cesar Chavez Jr has traveled a road very different from the one traveled by Martinez. He was...