It has been exactly two months since Middleweight kingpin Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez defended his crown against Matthew Macklin on St. Patrick’s Day, scoring a thrilling 11th-round TKO over the Irishman before a raucous sold-out crowd at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in easily one of the most entertaining fights shown live on HBO in 2012. Martinez now awaits the upcoming WBC Middleweight Championship bout between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Andy Lee, which will take place on June 16, in Laredo, TX, to see who he will face next.
While he waits, Martinez has kept himself extremely busy, especially in his native country of Argentina, where his popularity continues to soar to super stardom levels. Most recently, Martinez was asked to participate in the upcoming season of Bailando por un Sueño, which is Argentina’s version of “Dancing with the Stars” and considered the most popular television program in the entire country. Last year, Mike Tyson was one of the contestants on the show.
When Martinez was recently interviewed by renowned television host Alejandro Fantino on “Animales Sueltos,” the show received a monster 6.7 rating. Martinez discussed a number of topics during the roughly 40-minute long interview (to watch the video, click here).
Next up for the charismatic Martinez was an appearance on the stand-up comedy show, Duro de Domar, hosted by Daniel Tognetti. (Click here to view Sergio’s stand-up performance). Martinez showed a side of himself with which not many outside of his inner circle are familiar. From the reaction of performance though, you can be assured that it will not be the last time anyone has seen “Maravilla” the comedian.
Martinez was also recently named an honorary member of Arengtina’s premier soccer club River Plate (to watch video Click Here). The stadium in which River Plate plays is commonly referred to as El Monumental and is considered to be the national stadium of Argentina. Political officials from Argentina have expressed serious interest in staging one of Martinez’ future fights in the stadium.
“Its very humbling to be appreciated by my fellow countrymen and to be recognized after so many hard years of hard work and dedicating myself to the sport of boxing,” said Martinez. “Hopefully with my new found fame I can continue to bring awareness to those in need and the less fortunate.”
“Five years ago I knew that I had found something very special,” said Sampson Lewkowicz, advisor of Martinez. “I knew that I had an exciting new fighter for HBO and a fighter that could make sound waves throughout the boxing industry. Sergio has become the superstar that I knew he would, and the magnitude of the response during his welcome home tour proves that. Sergio is not only hands down the most popular fighter, but one of the most well-known and recognizable sport figures in the entire country of Argentina.”
“With his recent performances in and out of the ring, Sergio is quickly becoming a phenomenon in Argentina,” said promoter Lou DiBella. “As more and more people get to know him, his popularity will continue to spread not just in his home country of Argentina and his adopted home of the U.S. but begin reaching worldwide magnitude.”
