A media workout for lineal middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, scheduled for Tuesday at his gym in Ventura, Calif., was canceled on Monday for what promoter Lou DiBella termed “security threats” against Martinez.
Martinez is in the final preparations for his championship fight with titleholder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Sept. 15 (HBO PPV) at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
“This past weekend Sergio received threats from an unknown source and the car in front of his home (in Oxnard, Calif.) was vandalized,” DiBella said. “Unfortunately, until we have a security team in place, we are going to have to suspend any and all public and media appearances for Sergio, including the upcoming media day scheduled for (Tuesday). We apologize for the inconvenience to the media and fans that have planned on attending (Tuesday’s) event.”
DiBella said that Martinez had been threatened “verbally” but that when the car was vandalized it raised concerns for his safety.
“I didn’t get into all the details but the basic facts suggested that we need to beef up security around him, and with this particular event so close to the fight it was better to be safe than sorry,” DiBella said.
DiBella said it was unclear who was making threats against Argentina’s Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KOs).
“Nobody is blaming any of Chavez’s fans,” DiBella said. “Maybe it has something to do with somebody who has a beef with Sergio personally. People will scream stuff at (a fighter) like, ‘I’m gonna get you,’ or ‘I’m gonna kill you.’ Fighters have heard all of that stuff before. But when stuff gets vandalized you do take it a little more seriously. We spoke to security people and they suggested that we cancel this workout. So when security experts say you shouldn’t do this, we listened.
“No one is saying this is an international incident. But Tuesday was too quick to get everything together with security and have Sergio be relaxed, so we canceled this one.”
DiBella said Martinez would hold a scheduled workout in Los Angeles on Sept. 10 — with increased security — before heading to Las Vegas for fight week.
Mexico’s Chavez (46-0-1, 32 KOs) will have his media workout in Las Vegas, where he is training, on Thursday.
WRITTEN BY Dan Rafael | ESPN.com & FULL STORY HERE
