Sergio Martínez (boxer)

Sergio Gabriel Martínez (born 21 February 1975) is an Argentine professional boxer.

Sergio Martínez was born on 21 February 1975 in Avellaneda to parents Hugo Alberto Martínez and Susana Griselda.

Shortly afterwards the family relocated to the nearby city of Quilmes, which is also in the Buenos Aires Province.

His father worked as a construction worker and metal worker, a trade which Sergio Martínez joined along with his two brothers, Sebastian and Hugo Jr. Martínez was bullied as a child in his "dirt-poor rural village."

Before boxing, Martínez was a keen cyclist and football player and it was not until 1995 that he decided he would become a boxer.

After being trained by his uncle, Ruben Paniagua, Martínez began boxing as an amateur and compiled a record of 39–2 (39 wins to 2 losses), the losses came by way of majority decision and knockout.

His boxing career suffered a major setback in August 1996 when he broke his left hand, forcing him out of the sport for a year.

Martínez at the age of 22, had his first professional fight on 27 December 1997 in Ituzaingo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The opponent for his professional debut, Cristian Marcelo Vivas, was disqualified in the second round, giving Martínez his first win.

Martínez fought the first 17 fights of his career in his native Argentina, compiling a record of 16–0–1.

The only blemish on his record at this point occurred in his third fight, a draw against Mario Javier Nieva over four rounds.

Martínez rematched Nieva four months later and won a six-round unanimous decision.

After facing a relatively low level of opposition for his first 17 fights in Argentina, Martínez fought abroad for the first time, travelling to the United States to face Antonio Margarito on the undercard to the first Érik Morales vs Marco Antonio Barrera bout.

Although he considered competing for Argentina at the 2000 Olympics, he decided that he was too old to wait the two and a half years and chose to turn professional in December 1997.

The fight took place on 19 February 2000 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

The contest started badly for Martínez as Margarito scored a knockdown in the first round.

Although Martínez recovered and had some success in the early rounds, he was hurt by a number of punches in round seven leading to a stoppage by the referee, thus handing Martínez his first loss.

Following the Margarito fight, Martínez returned to Argentina and fought eight times, all victories, from April 2000 – February 2002.

During this run of fights he won the Argentina welterweight title after outpointing Javier Alejandro Blanco.

He successfully defended the title once, knocking out Sergio Ernesto Acuna in the seventh round, before being stripped of the title.

After his final fight in Argentina, a February 2002 win over Francisco Mora, Martínez decided to relocate to Spain.

It was there that he began his partnership with his current trainer Gabriel Sarmiento, who worked out of a gym in Azuqueca de Henares.

During his time in Spain, Martínez also worked jobs such as; nightclub bouncer, dishwasher, construction worker and did modelling jobs for Adidas and Nike.

From April 2002 – May 2003 he fought four times in Spain, all eight-round fights that he won against weak opposition, two of his opponents had lost their last six fights.

This was to change in his next fight however, as he took on Richard Williams in England for the lightly regarded IBO light middleweight title.

Martínez, who entered the ring as an underdog, having had only eight days preparation, won a unanimous decision.

Although Williams scored knockdowns in the second and eleventh rounds, he was close to being stopped in the final round and the scorecards were heavily in Martínez's favour.

He defended the IBO title twice in the United Kingdom; a twelfth round knock-out victory of Adrian Stone in Bristol was followed by a rematch against Williams in Belfast, on this occasion Williams was stopped in the ninth round.

Over the next two and a half years, Martínez won seven fights in a row back in Spain, six of which were against boxers who had losing records.

Soon thereafter, Martínez began to gain recognition and pursue fights in the United States, under the guidance of adviser Sampson Lewkowicz.

Martínez claimed the Interim WBC light middleweight championship on 4 October 2008, beating Alex Bunema via an eighth round retirement.

He has held world championships in two weight classes, including the WBC super welterweight title from 2009 to 2010; and the unified WBC, WBO, Ring magazine and lineal middleweight titles between 2010 and 2014.

With six successful defenses of The Ring and lineal middleweight titles, Martínez's 50-month reign as champion ranks as one of the longest in the history of that weight class.

In 2010 he was granted the Konex Award Merit Diploma as one of the five best boxers of the last decade in Argentina.

In 2010 he received Fighter of the Year awards by both The Ring and the Boxing Writers Association of America, as well as The Ring's Knockout of the Year for his rematch victory against Paul Williams.

The WBC named him their Boxer of the Year in 2010 and 2012.

A southpaw, Martínez was known as a fast and athletic fighter and his style has been described as "crowd-pleasing", partly because of his tendency to fight with his hands down when out of his opponents' range.

Outside the ring, Martínez has been an active spokesperson in the fight against bullying and domestic violence against women.

He is the author of a book, Corazón de Rey ("Heart of a King"), and is said to be working on a second book.

In 2011, Martínez reached a career high ranking as the world's third best active boxer, pound for pound, behind Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, as voted by most sporting news and boxing publications, including Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, and The Ring.