Sergio Martinez is brimming with confidence. He's coming off a crushing victory over the guy most pundits thought was the dominant force a 160 pounds. Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KOs) destroyed Kelly Pavlik during a unanimous decision victory. That made it two straight fights where he more than held up against fighters who were labeled, the nearly unbeatable class of their respective divisions.
Martinez came up short in last December's fight against Paul Williams. He said a short training camp and Williams' unusual size for the 154-pound division threw him off mentally. It sounds those mental weaknesses are gone heading into tomorrow's rematch at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
"After this fight, I'll be a pay-per-view fighter," Martinez told the L.A. Times. "It will not be close this time. I will knock him out in seven rounds. "I will dominate the whole round until our fight ends."
This time around, Martinez, 35, had the full eight weeks to prep for the fight. Last year, he was called in on short notice when Pavlik had to back out of a fight against "The Punisher."
Williams (38-1, 27 KOs) said he was also off his game because of little time to prep for his opponent.
"Basically I wasn’t prepared for him, but now I’m prepared for him even more. I have three months notice,” warns Williams, who fought Martinez without any preparation to fight a left-hander and won by majority decision. "In the first fight you could see my not doing what I normally do. I was just walking into stuff. But this time I got something better in store for him."
The first fight was excellent with both combatants going down in the first. They eventually combined to throw 1617 punches. Williams landed more but Martinez was more accurate. They were also separated by just 23 power punches landed.
The fight is a pick'em in most spots. It's also expected to be a long fight with the over/under set at 10 1/2 rounds. The over is the strong favorite at minus-260.
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