Professional Sport Blog

Having suffered a rather humiliating knockdown, the Argentinean boxer got his act together and dealt with Kelly Pavlik. In the process he took the WBO and WBC titles which must give him a lot of confidence going into the season. The middleweight titles were being contested in Atlanta city when Martinez had his memorable triumph against an opponent that at times looked as if he was going to win the match outright. The knock down came in the seventh round and for a time it seemed that it would be the decisive factor in the match.
However Martinez was not going down without a fight. He inflicted a cut on his opponent?s right eye and from there onwards the match turned in his favor. It seemed that the eye cut had significantly affect Pavlik and he was not as effective as he had been in the earlier rounds. The decisive moment actually came in the ninth round. The Argentinean player made the best of the momentum and consequently coasted to victory on points. Martinez said that he originally planned to go all the way so endurance was crucial.  However it must be said that Martinez was no pushover in the early stages of the match. He was using his formidable size and tactical awareness to land punches that were more often than not, right on the money. In fact without the knockdown in the seventh round, he would have been well on his way to a straightforward victory. The seventh round hiccup must have put in back into desperate mode and he decided to give it a shot. Ultimately the gamble paid off.
Boxing is all about taking the chances when they are appear. An opponent can be vulnerable and then come back within a split second. If the players are unable to spot that moment of vulnerability then they will end up missing out on a chance to seal the victory. On this occasion Martinez was the better strategist and he took his chances when they were presented.