"Margarito isn't even that good of a fighter, he isn't even close to being on the same level as Martinez. That fight wouldn't go past five rounds at most," remarked Gabriel Sarmiento, world-class trainer of Sergio Martinez, when asked about the possibility of a rematch with Antonio Margarito, who handed the current middleweight champion the first loss of his career. Despite losing via 7th round TKO, Sarmiento is confident that his training will be the key to an easy victory the second time around. "I'd prepare him the same way I always do, but Martinez would annihilate him. The only reason why it didn't happen before is because Martinez wasn't with me at the time. He was with a different trainer and when he lost, he came back home," Sarmiento explained to FightHype's own Ryan Kennedy.
Indeed, since that loss, the pairing of Martinez and Sarmiento has been a winning combination, winning 29 out of 31 fights in the past 10 years, with only two fights they didn't win being a controversial majority decision loss to Paul Williams and an even more controversial draw to Kermit Cintron. Sarmiento credits the work that Martinez has been doing in training as the key to their success. "I've kept him undefeated up until the Paul Williams fight. I've had him do all kinds of new physical work and Martinez is a whole different fighter than he was back then," he continued before comparing the difference in technique and skill between the two fighters. "Margarito, though, has hardly improved since then and is basically the exact same fighter he was ten years ago. Margarito is the same aggressor that simply comes at you, but Martinez has just evolved so much."
It is that difference in skill level that leads Sarmiento to believe that Martinez would make short work of Margarito if the two ever do meet inside the ring again. In fact, Sarmiento is so unimpressed with Margarito that he's confident that Martinez would knock him out even faster than the eight rounds that trainer Freddie Roach is predicting his star pupil, Manny Pacquiao, will need on November 13. "You've got the best guys out there, like Pacquiao, Mayweather, Martinez and Williams. Then a step lower you've got the Angulo's and Malignaggi's. Margarito isn't even on that level," he added. Margarito would get wrecked against Martinez a second time around. He'd get hit so many times, it wouldn't even last five rounds at most."
Be sure to check out much more from Gabriel Sarmiento regarding Sergio Martinez, Antonio Margarito, Paul Willams and more.