Sergio Martinez who is currently rated as the number 3 pound-for-pound best boxer in the World SIGNED, INSCRIBED "Maravilla" and DATED 2010 Everlast glove.

Price: £95

Sergio Gabriel Martinez (born 21 February 1975 in Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is a Spanish-based Argentine Middleweight now fighting out of Oxnard, California. He is the current WBC, WBO and The Ring World Middleweight Champion and is rated by The Ring as the number 8 pound-for-pound boxer in the world.

Martinez is also the former WBC World Super Welterweight Champion.

Martinez is widely considered one of the best and most talented fighters in the world, HBO boxing analyst Jim Lampley has on more than one occasion called him "The fastest Jr. Middleweight I've ever seen." On April 17th, 2010 Martinez defeated WBC/WBO/The Ring World Middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik to become the lineal Middleweight Champion of the World.

Professional Career
Martinez turned professional in December 1997 in Ituzaingo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is currently the WBC, and WBO middleweight champion. His debut Martinez defeated Cristian Marcelo Vivas with a second round stoppage.

Following 17 straight victories against relatively low level opposition in Buenos Aires within a two year period, Martínez then fought his first fight outside of Argentina against upcoming boxer Antonio Margarito at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States in February 2000. Martínez slumped to his first defeat when he suffered a 7th round knockout to the Mexican.

On May 21, 2009, WBC Super Welterweight Champion Vernon Forrest was stripped of his title due to a rib injury that would leave him out of action indefinitely. Because of the injury and his inability to fight Sergio Martinez, Martinez's interim title was upgraded to full WBC Title status.

He received a controversial Majority Draw against Kermit Cintron of Puerto Rico on February 14, 2009.

On December 5th Martinez fought Paul Williams in a war of a twelve round main event. In the first round Martinez was knocked down due to bad balance and a grazing left hand. In the final seconds of the 1st round though Martinez scored a knockdown of his own over Williams. The next two rounds were heavily in Martinez's favor as he hit Williams with barrages of counter punches. Rounds 4-7 showed Williams coming back effectively landing hard lefts to the head of Martinez. In rounds 8-11 Martinez again confused Williams with using different varieties of punches including; straight lead lefts to the body followed by right hooks to the head and straight lefts to the face. The 12th and final round showed much fatigue in Martinez and Williams but the warriors fought through to the end. Williams won a close majority decision over Martinez with the judges scoring; Pierre Benoist 119-110 for Williams, Lynn Carter 115-113 for Williams and Julie Lederman 114-114. Afterward both fighters expressed interest in a possible rematch.

After an impressive performance against Paul "The Punisher" Williams, Sergio Martinez moved up to the middleweight class and challenged WBO Middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik. The fight, broadcast live on HBO's Saturday Night Boxing, took place in Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall on April 17, 2010. Martinez defeated Pavlik via unanimous decision in a bout which saw Martinez overcome an early knockdown to subsequently dominate the late rounds. Pavlik had cuts above both eyes for several rounds which didn't stop bleeding; he said they affected his vision and performance, and he may ask for a rematch. Although there was a rematch clause in the contract, Pavlik chose not to enforce it, stating his desire to move up in weight.

The victory over Pavlik earned Martínez the Middleweight Championship of the WBC, The Ring and the WBO.

Martínez after defending his title against Paul Williams at the Boardwalk Hall in November, 2010.With Martínez winning the Middleweight championship, he was required to make some decisions regarding his conflicting WBC Super Welterweight (Light Middleweight) title. The sanctioning organizations for boxing recognize that boxers may choose to move up or down in the weight categories, yet they also wish to make all championship belts available to challenge. As such, their rules prohibit a fighter from simultaneously holding belts in multiple divisions. This prohibition includes holding a title with one sanctioning organization while also holding a title in a different weight class with a different organization. Eight weeks after the Pavlik fight, when Martínez failed to announce a preference to be a Super Welterweight or a Middleweight champion (the WBO rules allow ten days to decide), the WBO stripped him of their Middleweight title. A week later, Martínez did inform the WBC that he was willing to vacate their Super Welterweight title and maintain his WBC Middleweight belt.

The Rematch
Sergio Martinez vs. Paul Williams II
On November 20, 2010, Sergio got a chance to avenge his loss to Williams. Both fighters were ranked among the top six pound-for-pound fighters. Many speculated that this would be a fight of the year candidate. Approximately one minute into the second round, Martínez knocked Williams out with an over-the-top left hand to retain his title. The knockout was called by many as the knockout of the year. Williams stated to Max Kellerman after the fight, "He caught me with a punch I did not see."

Martínez vs Dzindziruk
Sergio Martínez fought previously undefeated Sergiy Dzindziruk on March 12, 2011 at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket, winning by TKO in 8 rounds. Dzindziruk, the WBO light middlweight champion, was knocked down five times in the fight.

Martínez vs Barker
Martínez fought undefeated EBU Middleweight Champion Darren Barker on October 1 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

Many boxing analysts and experts said that Darren Barker has the skills and ring generalship to one day become a champion, but that his skills were not perfected enough to do anything against Martinez. The first few rounds showed that Barker was actually able to make Martinez uncomfortable in the ring and give him more trouble than expected. Throughout the fight Barker consistently gave Martienz problems, while never hurting him or really ever winning any of the rounds he gave Martinez a challenge by coming in but not giving much offence to let Martinez counter or land anything clean. He also managed to get Martinez's nose to bleed early in the rounds by an upper cut. Martinez however fought through the difficulty and eventually found openings which led to knocking him out in the 11th round by a right hook. The WBC has declared Martinez to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, on an unknown date.

Martínez vs Macklin
Sergio will defend his Lineal title against Matthew Macklin of Ireland on March 17, 2012 at the Madison Square Garden in NYC.

Fighting Style
A southpaw, Martinez is known as a fast and athletic fighter and his style has been described as "crowd-pleasing"and, because of his tendency to fight with his hands down when he is out of range of his opponent, "arrogant". One of Martinez's best weapons is his right hook, which he says he developed when he injured his left hand during his amateur career.