Martinez vs Macklin: Sergio Calling For the KO

Sergio Martinez is predicting a knockout in tomorrow's world middleweight championship fight against Matthew Macklin. From BoxingScene.com:

"I'm ready to win by knockout between the eighth and the tenth round. With my team of Pablo Sarmiento and Marcelo Crudele, we are not going to leave anything to chance [by going to a decision], a strategy that we usually follow," Martinez said.

Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KO) doesn't have the greatest KO percentage out there, but he has stopped his last three foes, blasting out Paul Williams in two in the 2009 KO of the Year, followed by systematic destruction of both Serhiy Dzinziruk and Darren Barker last year.

Macklin (28-3, 19 KO) is a tough customer, but he's never faced someone like Martinez. Sergio is just plain better than anyone that Macklin has faced, plus he's a southpaw with a really unorthodox style. I do like Macklin's confidence, as he seems truly fearless about this fight, which he needs to be, but this figures to one hell of a tough challenge for him even if he's at his very best, or better than he's ever been.

I've seen a little chatter out there that Martinez has become overconfident himself, and that may play into what happens on Saturday night. We've had the talk here that Macklin has a legit shot in this one, and I've seen a lot of other smart folks think the same thing, some even calling for the upset.

Martinez vs Macklin is live on HBO and Sky Sports at 10 p.m. EDT tomorrow night, and Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.