Over the weekend, an interview with Sergio Martinez, the consensus 3rd best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, aired on ESPN Deportes. Speaking with Jaime Motta, Martinez expressed his dissatisfaction regarding his WBC title being taken from him by said organization. Here are his words, firstly in Spanish, so that there is no misrepresentation. After, I will present the translation in English.
First, he was asked how he felt about being the "Emeritus" champion:
"La verdad es que, me sabe a poco, me sabe a poco, yo quería realmente seguir defendiendo la corona que tuvo Carlos Monzón. De lo tanto que se habla de Monzón, bueno pues yo quería defenderlo hasta que me retire del boxeo, tratar de defenderlo como siempre. Pero bueno, me tengo que quedar con esto "Emeritus" y ver lo que pasará en el futuro. Ojala sea para bien."
"The truth is it's not enough for me, it's not enough. What I really wanted was to keep defending the title that Carlos Monzón had. So much is spoken about Monzón, well, I wanted to defend that title until I retire from boxing; try to defend it always. But I have to make due with the Emeritus belt and see what happens in the future. Let´s hope it´s a good thing."
When asked his thoughts on Julio Cesar Chávez Jr fighting Sebastian Zbik for the title, Martinez said:
"Creo que todo es para que Chávez sea campeón, lo vengo diciendo desde tiempo. Yo comprendo que el consejo mundial intenta brindarle lo mejor de sí a Chávez Jr por ser quien es por ser el hijo de quien es y por ser mexicano pero bueno voy a tratar de aceptar lo que hay y esperar que Chávez gane el mundial para tratar de desafiarlo."
"I think everything is being done so that Chávez becomes the champion. I've been saying it for quite a while. I understand that the WBC is trying to do its best for Chávez Jr, for who he is, for being the son of who he is, and for being Mexican, but I'm going to try to accept things how they are and hope Chávez wins the world title so I will be able to challenge him."
Martinez, being the gentleman that he is, most probably held back with his words, but one can clearly see that he is dissatisfied with the decision of the WBC. How ridiculous is it that the Argentine who fought for years in front of small crowds in Spain and worked extremely hard to finally get to a highly-regarded position in the sport, suddenly has his title taken away from him after doing so much to earn it. A man who defeated Kelly Pavlik and Paul Williams so decisively now has to wait to see if Chávez Jr wins the title from Zbik so he can win back the title that in actual fact belongs to him.