By Osman Rodriguez

Trainer Freddie Roach has studied several of Sergio Martinez's fights. In particular, Roach studied Martinez's 2010 twelve round decision victory over Kelly Pavlik. On Saturday Martinez (49-2-2, 28KOs) will face Roach's boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32KOs) for the WBC middleweight title at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Roach felt Martinez is not capable of fighting for twelve hard rounds at a high pace.

"It shows some things that we can take advantage of in the fight. He took some of the middle rounds off because he can't fight twelve rounds at a high pace. He does take rounds off. He's actually a very smart fighter because he gave Pavlik some momentum and made him confident and that it allowed him to walk into that left hand and it hurt him badly," Roach said.

"With Martinez, you have to recognize when he wants to rest and when he wants to fight. What we worked on with, a lot of strategy, is to know when he wants to rest and when he's setting you up with that counter-punch. When he's trying to rest you have to make him fight."