This Friday, ESPN The Magazine’s third annual “Body Issue” will hit newsstands around the world. One of the featured athletes in the edition is the number one middleweight, and top three pound-for-pound fighter in the world, WBC Diamond belt Middleweight Champion Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez. Martinez is fresh off his world championship defense this past Saturday in Atlantic City via an 11th-round knockout over previously undefeated European middleweight Champion Darren Barker. You can view a video of Martinez’s photo shoot for the ESPN Body Issue here.
Of course, Martinez posing for ESPN the Magazine and their Body Issue isn’t the first instance of a boxer doing a photo shoot recently. Victor Ortiz did a underwear modeling shoot prior to his bout with Floyd Mayweather. How’d that work out for him?
But in any event, Martinez gets to take part in the highly anticipated Body Issue, which is ESPN the Magazine’s answer to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. It features many top athletes, both men and women, posing essentially naked but covered up in some fashion. Most importantly for boxing, it signifies that Martinez has some growing star power and after this, your girlfriend or wife might want to make sure she’s on hand for the next Sergio Martinez fight.
