Martinez takes world title
Sergio Martinez became a two-weight world champion after stepping up to middleweight to take Kelly Pavlik's WBO and WBC titles by unanimous decision in Atlantic City.
The southpaw WBC light middleweight champion from Argentina stepped up to 160 pounds at the Boardwalk Hall and survived a seventh-round knockdown to hand a badly cut Pavlik his first defeat at middleweight.
Martinez, 35, had commanded the ring over the early rounds only for 28-year-old American Pavlik to dominate the middle of the contest, sending his off-balance challenger to the canvas in round seven.
But back came Martinez, throwing more punches against a slowing Pavlik and cutting the champion around both eyes to score heavily in the closing rounds.
Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KOs) got the verdict with scores of 115-112, 115-111 and 116-111 as Pavlik (36-2, 32 KOs) was sent to just the second defeat of his career, having lost at light heavyweight in October of 2008 to Bernard Hopkins.
In Montreal earlier in the night, Romania's Lucien Bute stayed unbeaten with his 26th straight victory as he scored a third-round knockout win over Colombia's Edison Miranda (33-5, 29 KOs) to retain his IBF super middleweight belt.
