Monday Night Quarterback

Even though the WBC decided to strip middleweight champion Sergio Martinez of his belt, that's apparently not going to stop "El Maravilla" from flaunting it, along with his Ring Magazine belt. Sergio, you better be careful - I'm sure a sanctioning fee will still somehow be charged by the green-belt bandits.

Some quick thoughts about the fistic weekend that was:

## Anyone else think that there’s no way Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao won’t be fighting Sergio Martinez anytime soon? He can say all he wants about fighting either guy next, but Martinez is more likely to sprout wings and fly before he sees himself in the ring with either man. His fantastic KO of the previously unbeaten Sergiy Dzinziruk has seen to that. Much like Nonito Donaire’s awesome starching of Fernando Montiel last month, “El Maravilla” showed that rare quality of making excellent fighters look like they don’t belong in the ring with him. Only the true greats of the sport are typically able to do that. Believe me, Dzinziruk will beat a lot of people and win more titles before he’s done, and he probably will not look this bad again for a long time. That fact that he did speaks to where Martinez is at right now. If Floyd or Manny fought him right now, I think they’d be in real trouble.

## While I haven’t watched the Miguel Cotto-Ricardo Mayorga fight (which I’m sure is filled with Mayorga talking junk and getting hit A LOT), I did see a clip of the post fight press conference, which may just have been more interesting. While no one should be really surprised that Bob Arum’s going to line his pockets by putting the Plaster Caster himself, Antonio Margarito, back in the ring with Cotto, he better be aware of just how this dynamic might play out. If you check out this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL1cQ-V8f at about the eight minute mark, you will see Cotto giving Margs a reception so frosty you’d have been able to keep your beer cold just by putting it in the space between the two. Cotto has obviously serious disdain for Margarito, beyond the usual trash talk between fighters jockeying for a fight. Cotto likely believes that he was beaten by a guy with loaded gloves, and probably wants not just to beat Margarito, but beat him up. Arum had better be prepared for a situation where Margarito, between the Pacquiao fight and the potential one against Cotto, might be finished after two brutal beatings.

## I’m sorry, but I’m just not going to get all that excited over Andy Lee’s thrilling, come-from-behind KO of Scot Craig McEwan on the opener of Martinez-Dzinziruk. Yeah, it was a great fight, but all I’ve been hearing about is how great a comeback it was, and how he saved his career, blah, blah, blah. The truth is, while McEwan is a solid fighter, he’s no top ten guy at middleweight, and he tagged Lee at will for about six rounds in that fight. All credit to Lee’s persistence, but does ANYONE see him beating Kelly Pavlik or Paul Williams, let alone Martinez, who is rumored to be his next opponent? Lee gets hit far too much, and the top guys in the division would take him apart. He’s been with Emanuel Steward too long to think that he’ll suddenly become a better defensive fighter at some point soon; if he was ever going to, Manny would have already got him there. All it looks like Lee has earned with his win is a chance to earn a nice payday while getting beaten down by Martinez.