After winning the middleweight championship againstKelly Pavlik in April 2010, Sergio Martínez made one defence of the WBC belt before he was stripped for not facing "Interim" champion Sebastian Zbik. Zbik would be promoted to full champion but would lose the belt in his first defence to Julio César Chávez Jr..[2] Nevertheless, despite Chávez's godfather Jose Sulaiman attempting to block the bout, Chávez agreed to challenge Martínez.[3][4]
Martínez trained for the fight in Oxnard, California under his career long time coach, Gabriel Sarmiento.[5]
The fight
Martínez out worked and out landed Chávez throughout the first 11 rounds of the fight, in dominate fashion. Though Chávez had his moments, Martínez used his fast lateral movement to avoid and neutralize Chávez' offensive attack. Chávez hurt Martinez in the 12th round, sending him to the canvas halfway through the round. Martínez got up with a little over one minute left in the fight, and rather than clinch or hold on to Chávez, Martínez continued to throw and trade blows with the Mexican. Despite being fatigued and clearly hurt, Martínez managed to survive the 12th round without holding. Martínez won the fight by unanimous decision, by the scores of 117–110, 118–109, and 118–109.[6]
Aftermath
After the fight, it was revealed that Martínez had broken his left hand (as early as the 4th round) and torn his right meniscus, the latter of which would require surgery.[7][8] Shortly afterwards, Chávez tested positive for cannabis.[9] As a result, he received a fine of $20,000 and was indefinitely suspended by the World Boxing Council.[10]
A total of 16,939 tickets were sold to generate a live gate of $3,052,475. HBO reported the fight generated 475,000 pay-per-view buys and close to $25 million in revenue.[11]
