Sergio Martinez - From Frequent Robbery Victim to Boxing Champion - NYTimes.com Before Sergio Martinez became the most unlikely boxing world champion, he spent his formative years as the most likely robbery victim in the small Argentine barrio he called home. Thieves did not rob Martinez once, or twice. They robbed him at least 10 times. Today, Martinez is a middleweight with 27 knockouts, as feared as any fighter, his left hand his only necessary bodyguard. Back then, neighborhood thugs took, according to his recollection, his watch (twice), sandals, shoes, wallet, cash, documents, bicycle, T-shirt and, once, a single peso. "One day his computer school was closed," Martinez's father, Hugo, said recently in a telephone interview from Calzadilla, Spain. Someone hit him with a gun in the eye. It was purple, bruised. We joked about his bad luck with robberies. It seemed like, if Sergio left the house, he got robbed. Hugo Martinez laughed. "I can tell you more stories about robberies," he added. One robbery changed Martinez's life, led him to Italy, then Spain, then California, into boxing, where he is generally considered the world's best fighter not named Mayweather or Pacquiao. Martinez is scheduled to fight Matthew Macklin at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Martinez still remembers the exact date and time this robbery took place: Dec. 31, 1990, 10:22 a.m. Martinez spent the previous night working on his red race bike, a gift, when his mother sent him across town to buy cheaper bread than was available nearby. He made it two blocks before one assailant fired gunshots at his feet and another grabbed the bicycle. Martinez could no longer dream of professional cycling, not without his wheels. So he shifted focus toward soccer, a sport he would later train for inside a boxing ring. He was 15 years old. Another story: After Martinez, now 37, became an unlikely boxing champion, after years of fighting nobodies for nothing, he partnered with a financial adviser, Miguel Angel de Pablos. They took Martinez's boxing money and started a security consultation company. They invested in businesses and markets. They entered the volatile world of boxing management. The thread, throughout, remained consistent. The fearful became the fearsome, the poor boy a rich man. And the cyclist who accidentally became a boxer, who obtained his titles and athletic acclaim far later in life than most, has made more money from investments than from fighting, has made millions outside the ring, according to his advisers. The unlikely champion is now an unlikely millionaire. Somehow, because this is Martinez, because he is so different from most boxers, his story all makes sense. "Sergio is un-ordinary," his promoter, Lou DiBella, said. He's an unusual athlete, an unusual fighter. He's cerebral. Sensitive. Very artsy. Likes fashion. Has his own sense of style, which is extremely Euro. Great recall. He should be in Mensa the way his mind works. In his hometown, Quilmes, in the province of Buenos Aires, Martinez first wanted to become a striker, but not the boxing kind. He rooted for the professional soccer club River Plate, imitated the team's forwards, decided soccer would become his sport. Then he tried tennis. Then handball. Then cycling. Then soccer again. He approached all sports the same way, with over-the-top aggression, reckless even, to mask his technical deficiencies. Hugo Martinez does not describe his family as poor. But there were days, sometimes consecutive ones, when they did not eat. He worked in the steel business, built structures for industrial developments, worked from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m., often seven days a week. When his three boys were old enough, they labored alongside him. Two of them, Victor Hugo and Sebastian, still work in the steel industry. His middle son's career also resulted largely from his hands. The Martinez family followed soccer and boxing with religious fervor. The extended clan gathered to watch fights on the small television at the family home, but usually with little food, which they rationed, Sergio Martinez said, "like for horses on a farm."