Its tough for me to pick a winner on Sat. I like both Maravilla, and Dzin.... I'm almost tempted to go with the upset here. Dzin is an excellent techncial boxer with a tight defense, and that great right jab of his is gonna be very problematic for Marvailla IMO, especially in the middle rounds when Sergio always has lulls. I expect Martinez is build an early lead behind his superior handspeed, but by the mid rounds I expect Dzin to find the range with that jab, and begin landing short, accuarte shots on Martinez. In the late rounds Maravilla will rally back strong, but Dzin gets better as the fight progresses. I'm really torn on this fight. I see as basically 50/50, but for my FINAL prediction.... I'm gonna go out on a slight limb and pick Dzinziruk by decision. If Martinez clearly wins this fight... I'll consider it his best win. Dzin IMO is better than Pavlik, and Williams. As for the undercard.... Ive never seen Craig McEwan fight before, but if he's at least pretty good... he'll beat sucky ass Andy Lee.
Martinez by decision, 8-4 or so. Martinez has that extra bit of specialness that Dzinidzinizoorik doesn't have. I'll be pretty surprised if Zoorik wins to be honest.
martinez better not fight w/ his hands down. dzinziruk has one of the best sharp jabs in the game. not sure who's gonna win this, but i slightly favor martinez based on his recent competition.
I like Dzin on points. Sergio will get sick of getting hit in the face and it will be a clear win for dzin.
That's an odd thing to say. Martinez is no pussy, when has he ever acted like he hates getting hit? He was prepared to take plenty against Tall Paul to land his own big shots. Maybe I'm underrated Zoorik, but I just have trouble picking someone who can best be described as "a technical boxer". Sure he's a good, sound fighter, nice jab, but I don't see that special, elite fighter quality in him. Plus he's pretty unproven compared to Martinez. A win over Santos 6 years ago, and a boring decision over Joel Julio? The same Julio that got destroyed by Kirkland in his next fight. Again, I'll be very, very surprised if he beats Martinez.
My prediction when HBO's "big three" fight cards for the 1Q were announced was that Donaire-Montiel would be the only one to not disappoint. Sticking with that prediction (unless of course you're a Montiel fan and thus disappointed w/ the outcome). Martinez by decision in a fight that Stringer Bell would refer to as a 40-degree day. I like Lee by "upset" over McEwan. Not sure Golden Boy's influence reaches Connecticut, plus I just don't think much of McEwan at all.
I like Martinez a lot, I just think this is a very bad matchup for him. Kelly was dangerous, but slow. Paul is offensively adept, but defensively lacking. Angulo is Angulo. Dzin brings size and range, southpaw stance, timing, accuracy, and he's not that easy to hit. I don't see Martinez having the game-changing power to throw Dzin off of his game. I add this up and get points win for Dzin. Like Xplosive, I'll probably consider this to be Martinez's best win if he gets past Dzin.
I'm most interested in how Martinez/Dzin plays out out of the three, but Donaire/Montiel was better on paper, at least in the sense of it probably being the best fight to watch. Donaire/Montiel is ppv quality, imo. Martinez/Dzin is more like how I felt with Calzaghe/Kessler and I'm curious if it will bomb in the ratings the same way. Bradley/Alexander was doomed to suck. I don't know how anyone could watch their fights and think matching them up would be a good thing. But then to pay big $$$ for the matchup is what should have gotten someone into a new line of work.
Fair enough. From my perspective, I consider Martinez to be the 3rd best fighter in the world after Pacquiao and Donaire. He's a special talent, and Zurik is basically a solid, world class "boxer". And for me, relatively unproven. In recent years, he has a boring decision over Joel Julio. I used to over analyse styles when picking fights, these days I simply pick who I think is better, and it honestly works out well. My success rate of picking fights is better than before, with this new simple approach.
Hmm... Calzaghe-Kessler was one fight for which I couldn't wait - though oddly enough I wound up watching it via stream while at ringside for JMM-Juarez. But it's not a fight I would equate to this weekend - Martinez-Dzinziruk is intriguing on paper but the potential to be a stinker. Calzaghe-Kessler was one of the most significant fights in the history of the SMW division, and turned out to be every bit as entertaining as it was relevant (IMO, anyway). If this fight bombs in the ratings, HBO only has itself to blame (well, Gary Shaw and Artie Pellulo as well, as I suppose). To say that Calzaghe-Kessler bombed is unfair, and a bit of a Hauser spin on it. The fight needed to happen, it drew well over 50,000 fans at not-very-cheap ticket prices and proved to entertain. That it didn't rate well is a testament to how the general American boxing fan chooses to support his/her sport.
I think this is a close fight. I don't think Dzindzuruk will walk into anything massive like Paul Williams did, but Dzindzuruk must surely have aged some too, I don't know if he is as sharp as he used to be. Cannot see it being half as entertaining as Williams vs Martinez, but more of a refined, technical affair. Right now I would go with Martinez on a decision.
Funny that this comparison comes up. I thought Dzinziruk is at a very similar stage of his career as Calzaghe was a few years ago. A lot will depend on whether Dzinziruk was just bored by his inferior opposition like Calzaghe or he has simply declined due to age and inactivity. Calzaghe had these poor performances against the likes of Salem and Mitchell, and was written off by many. Dzinziruk had similar poor performances against Julio and Konecny recently. Really should have lost to Konecny. If Dzinziruk still has 2005 Santos in him, we´ll have a real fight and a good technical bout, since Dzinziruk prefers boxers. If his last bouts are a reflection of his current capabilities this will be a boring mismatch and Dzinziruk will not know what hit him. With HBO´s luck it will be the latter.
this is going to be a very close fight. I pick Dzinziruk to deserve the decision. Whether he gets it officially or not is a different story. Might see a draw or SD Martinez here. But I preduct Dzinziruk Split Decision.
Good post. I cant help thinking inactivity and mediocre competition won't prepare him for a thorougly prepared Martinez, its not like he's facing Jeff Lacy
Just picking the better fighter makes sense and I sort of lean that way when it comes to guys moving up in weight. But I do make some exceptions. In this case, though, I wasn't sure that Martinez was even better than Dzin straight up. I was surprised to see Dzin lose this because he couldn't take Martinez's power. I could see Martinez running around and outpointing him, maybe, but not banging him out of there. I thought Dzin was coming on nicely in 5-7, thinking he was winning rd 5 before the kd, and having a chance to make the fight play out like I thought it would. Roy expressed exactly what I was thinking right before the last round when he said that if Martinez didn't get another knockdown, it was going to be a long last half of the fight for him. To Sergio's credit, he got it and then some. Martinez, to me, is far more like Pascal than he is like RJJ. He jerks around and throws pot shots. I like him and I think he's on a good enough run that you can rate him has high as you like p4p and back it up. However, I am very suspicious of a mid-30's boxer getting better with this style, though. How do you improve your stamina, punching power, speed, and move up in weight? We all know the answer to that.
Hope not and don't know, but I am suspicious. I wasn't comparing how good they are, only stating that what Martinez does is far more similar to what Pascal does than what RJJ did. I do think that Martinez is better than Pascal, but Pascal's Dawson win is arguably better than Martinez's Dzin or Williams wins so I don't think it's quite as clearcut as you are implying. Martinez is getting the HBO hype job treatment right now in spades. Now that they have Donaire, he is getting it, too. When a mid-30's guy is improving in the ways I mentioned or when HBO is hyping someone, it makes sense to be skeptical.
ridiculous. maybe if you didnt watch any of the three fights and how they played out you could make such a claim.
Pascal is the luckiest fighter in boxing. Got saved from getting KO'd against a listless Dawson by a headbutt. Got a gift against Hopkins. Pascal couldnt shine Maravilla's shoes.
