Sergio Gabriel Martínez (born February 21, 1975) is an Argentine former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2014. He held the unified WBC, WBO, Ring magazine, and lineal middleweight titles from 2010 to 2014, making six successful defenses of the latter two titles. Martínez's 50-month reign as lineal champion ranks as one of the longest in middleweight history. He also fought at light middleweight, where he held the IBO title from 2003 to 2005, and the WBC interim title in 2008 (later elevated to full world champion status the following year).
Martínez reached a career high ranking as the third best boxer in the world, pound for pound, behind Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, as voted by most sporting news and boxing publications, including Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, and The Ring. In 2010 he received Fighter of the Year awards by both The Ring and the Boxing Writers Association of America, as well as The Ring's Knockout of the Year for his victory against Paul Williams. The WBC named him their Boxer of the Year in 2010 and 2012. A southpaw, Martínez was known as a fast and athletic fighter and his style has been described as "crowd-pleasing",partly because of his tendency to fight with his hands down when out of his opponents' range.
Outside the ring, Martínez has been an active spokesperson in the fight against bullying and domestic violence against women. He is the author of a book, Corazón de Rey ("Heart of a King"), and is said to be working on a second book.
29 сен 2024
