World Boxing Council (WBC)/The Ring middleweight champion and Argentina’s favorite son, SERGIO “Maravilla” MARTÍNEZ, held his final media day earlier this afternoon ahead of his upcoming world title defense this Saturday, and the most eagerly anticipated boxing event of 2014 against three-division world champion and the Pride of Puerto Rico, MIGUEL COTTO.
Photo credit: Top Rank and DiBella Entertainment/ Ed Mulholland
Hundreds of media members and even more fans turned out Modell’s Sporting Goods flagship store in Times Square, just block from where Martinez will meet Cotto on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, to get a glimpse of Martinez. Martinez answered questions for the media before performing an intense 30 minute workout, which showed the champion to be in absolutely phenomenal shape ahead of his upcoming title defense. Following his work out, Martinez sat and signed autographs and took photos with every single one of his adoring fans that had come out to show their support.
Below are some brief quotes from Martinez as well as a few select photos from both the media work out, and the Empire State Building, where Martinez took photos with his opponent Miguel Cotto earlier in the afternoon, before heading over to his workout.
SERGIO MARTINEZ: I love New York City. It is one of my favorite cities in the world. I am so excited to be here and fight at one of the most famous arenas in the entire world. This is a dream come true for me.
Camp was phenomenal. The gym was excellent, Miami was perfect. This is the best training camp that I have ever had in my entire career. I said it before and I am saying it again, there is no possible way that Cotto will make it out of the 9th round.
On Freddie Roach predicting a KO victory for Cotto:
Freddie Roach is excellent at telling jokes and this is one of the best jokes he has ever told.
Photo credit: Top Rank and DiBella Entertainment/ Ed Mulholland
Photo credit: Top Rank and DiBella Entertainment/ Ed Mulholland
Promoted by Miguel Cotto Promotions, Top Rank®, DiBella Entertainment and Sampson Boxing, in association with Maravilla Box, Tecate and Madison Square Garden, the Cotto vs. Martínez World Middleweight Championship event takes place Saturday, June 7, at the “Mecca of Boxing,” Madison Square Garden and will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View®, beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT.
HBO’s Emmy-Award®-winning reality series “24/7,” which has captured 18 Sports Emmys in its first seven seasons, returns with an all-new edition when “24/7 Cotto/Martinez” premieres Saturday, May 31 at 11:15 p.m. (ET/PT) on HBO.
Cotto (39-4, 31 KOs), of Caguas, Puerto Rico, who has sold more tickets to The Garden than any other fighter in this millennium, will attempt to become Puerto Rico’s first four-division world champion while Martínez (51-2-2, 28 KOs), of Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina, who has never lost a world championship fight, defends the title he first won in 2010. Both gladiators boast a combined record of 89-6-2 (59 KOs) – a winning percentage of 92% and a victory by knockout ratio of 66%.
Tickets to the Cotto vs. Martínez World Middleweight Championship are on sale now andpriced at $750, $500, $300, $200, $100 and $50. Tickets can be purchased at the Madison Square Garden Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster charge by phone (866-858-0008), and online at www.ticketmaster.com and www.thegarden.com.
For fight updates go to www.toprank.com, www.hbo.com/boxing, www.dbe1.com, www.sampsonboxing.com, www.promocionesmiguelcotto.com and www.maravillabox.com, Facebook atfacebook.com/trboxing, facebook.com/trboxeo, facebook.com/DiBellaentertainment, facebook.com/TopRankMiguelCotto, facebook.com/maravillabox, and facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, twitter.com/dibellaent, twitter.com/SampsonBoxing, twitter.com/hboboxing, twitter.com/realmiguelcotto or twitter.com/maravillabox. Use the Hashtag #CottoMartinez to join the conversation on Twitter.
