Matthew Macklin starts Sergio Martinez charm campaign

Middleweight Matthew Macklin (28-3, 19 KOs) has vowed not to resort to trash talking to try and entice WBC diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (48-2, 27 KOs) into a fight with him.

Macklin, who is now New York-based and signed with Lou DiBella (who also promotes Martinez and Andy Lee) has nothing but good things to say about the Argentinean.

"I have too much respect for Sergio and what he has achieved over the last few years to bad mouth him," Macklin said recently. "He's been a breath of fresh air for the sport, he doesn't duck any challenges and he conducts himself like a champion inside and outside the ring."

Realistically, Martinez does not want to fight Macklin or Lee, or anyone else in the middleweight division for that matter, in his next assignment.  He wants a mega fight with either Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, or the winner of the December 3 fight between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.

However, if DiBella cannot broker a deal with any of the aforementioned, then one would imagine that he might counsel Martinez to fight one of the other prominent middleweights that he represents.

Lee made a case for himself as a potential candidate last week with his impressive win over Bryan Vera, while Macklin already had his credentials in place when he went to Germany and fought WBA champion Felix Sturm last June.  Though he lost on the judges' scorecards, in the eyes of the vast majority of the boxing world Macklin was the winner of the fight.

Macklin thinks that a fight between himself and Martinez would be a feast for boxing fans.

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"I think our styles would gel for a sensational fight and I'm confident our promoter Lou DiBella can put it together for Sergio's next defense," he said.

The Birmingham-born and raised Irishman knows exactly when he would like his second tilt at a world title.

"It's an easy fight to make. We're both promoted by Lou DiBella and I think it's a natural fight for Madison Square Garden on St. Patrick's Day next year,” he says.

One of the main reasons that Macklin relocated to the U.S. was to cultivate a following over here, and being raised in an Irish family in a country outside of Ireland is something that Macklin knows about firsthand.  He aims to give Irish and Irish American boxing fans a new hero to support.

"The Irish community over here is massive but it's also a very close knit one and I'm determined to give them plenty to shout about,” he says.

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Nster.com