By Bill Emes
Promoter Lou DiBella is furious with the current situation between Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 27KOs) and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (44-1, 31KOs). Last week at the WBC's 49th annual convention in Las Vegas, Chavez was ordered to defend his WBC middleweight title against Martinez, with the winner to face Marco Antonio Rubio by June, but Chavez is likely going straight to Rubio on February 4th in Texas. Martinez is scheduled to fight on March 17th.
DiBella is willing to work something out with Chavez's promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, to allow both fighters to move forward with their scheduled HBO televised fights, and then face off at a later date.
"Some little punk can't decide that he can hold the belt hostage because his daddy was a great fighter. And Bob can't control the whole game because he has Manny [Pacquiao]. The kid can't hold the belt hostage. He won a vacant title. He already fought a voluntary. And now he's just paying the piper. Arum already said in Houston that we're not fighting Sergio next, that he's not ready for fight. And he's not ready for it, so let's work something out. Maybe he gets a couple of more defenses and he will be ready for it and maybe it's a much bigger fight for the fall," DiBella said.