How did everybody on livefight have this at the time of stoppage??
I had Martinez miles in front. I completely disagreed with almost everything Jim Watt was saying. I thought Martinez was bossing the fight and landing all the crisp, hurtful shots. Macklin was taking them well but kept walking into rasping left leads and staying around for counter rights, but the damage really started to tell in the later rounds and eventually his punch resistance gave out.
I felt it was similar to Pacquiao-Marquez in that regard. Except Marquez held up a lot better and didn't deteriorate at all.
Thus, people were saying it was close in the middle rounds, but it just wasn't close at all. There was a gulf in class, but Macklin was occasionally catching Martinez a little straight up and those punches were a bit more obvious than the faster digs Martinez was landing as the two came together. Again, really similar to Pacquiao-Marquez.
I mean, for instance, the 5th round Martinez was dishing out a beating yet Jim Watt scored that for Macklin because he landed a few slow looping (easy-to-see) shots in exchanges in the early parts of the round.
I felt that Martinez could have stepped that up at almost any moment and really caused Macklin problems, but he was enjoying the thinking match and knew he could finish the fight late on, so took his time and slowly built up the level of punishment.
This was really in evidence after the "knock down" of Martinez (whilst there was a punch, it had nothing on it, but a tangle of legs caused Martinez to stumble). Martinez, pissed off, went after Macklin and had him badly hurt by the bell of that round.
The judges who had Martinez 4 points in front were probably about right. Anything less was way off, and the judge who had it a draw was frankly blind.
