Fernando Martinez, a Puma in Las Vegas
“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime and I plan to make the most of it, it’s every boxer’s dream, needless to say,” he says.
Martinez has 13 fights as a paid fighter, all of them wins with 8 before the limit, while his opponent has 36 fights: he won 33 (22 by knockout) and lost.
In the main event, Chris Colbert (16-0-0, 6 KO) and Dominican Hector Luis Garcia (14-0-0, 10 KO) will fight in the WBA super featherweight eliminator. Regular champion Roger Gutierrez was supposed to fight Colbert, but COVID 19 prevented him from doing so for now. Colbert is one of the most colorful boxers of the moment – and that includes his multicolored hairstyles – and according to him, “I like to dance like Muhammad Ali”.
Fernando Martínez traveled accompanied by his coach, Rodrigo Calabrese, Marcos “Chino” Maidana, owner of the company to which “Puma” belongs, Martín Gómez “Pileta” Maidana -cousin of the former world champion- and the “boxing doctor”, Walter Quintero, who among other greats was closely linked to Marcos Maidana’s campaign.
Five Argentine boxers have had access to the super flyweight crown, with the likes of Gustavo Ballas, Santos “Falucho” Laciar, Carlos Salazar, Victor “Cococho” Godoi and Omar “El Huracan” Narvaez.
The company is not easy, since Ancajas is a solid champion with great experience in defending his crown, but it is also true that Martinez has had his own since his time in AIBA boxing. WBC Silver super flyweight champion, man as already mentioned of Chino Maidana Promotions, partner of Micaela Torta -also a boxer-, arrived in Las Vegas ready for the weigh-in (“One of the issues that sometimes cost me a little, but I’m used to it”) and passed all the medical exams for Saturday’s fight. He has already gone through several interviews and in them he always highlighted his confidence.
As he once told us, “I am like Renato (Bermudez) used to say, I feel like a shark when I smell blood and I am sure that on Saturday I will prove it.
Fighting in Las Vegas for a world championship is anyone’s dream. And winning is my dream. I worked for it and I hope to get it.
Everything suggests that it will be a high voltage fight. “I’ve been training at full capacity for several months now, because since October the guys from Chino Maidana Promotions had already warned me that I was going to have a great chance. Now it happened and I’m in my best physical condition. I’m here to win”, says “Puma”.