Scott Quigg to face Kiko Martinez on July 18th in Manchester

By Boxing News - 05/12/2015 - Comments

frampton21By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg (30-0-2, 22 KOs) won’t be facing the guys that boxing fans want to see him fight in Carl Frampton or Guillermo Rigondeaux next, but he will be facing a guy that was recently beaten in former IBF 122 pound champion Kiko Martinez (32-5, 24 KOs) on July 18th at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.

Quigg-Martinez is not a fight that fans are pushing for right now, and it looks like Quigg’s promoter Eddie Hearn is continuing with his careful match-making for his fighter because Martinez doesn’t bring much to the table unless you want an ex-champion who was recently easily beaten by Frampton.

I don’t know Quigg can get up for this fight because there’s no gain from fighting Martinez because the only thing that Quigg can try to accomplish is beating Martinez in a better fashion than Frampton.

Quigg is basically getting sloppy seconds by taking this fight, and there’s a chance that he’ll do worse than Frampton. If Quigg beats Martinez, no one will give him credit because the guy has been beaten twice by Frampton in the past.

“I have got a tough fight on my hands but it is one I am very confident of winning,” Quigg told Skysports.com. “This is definitely going to be the toughest fight of my career. People know what Kiko Martinez brings. He brings pressure, he’s a big puncher and he’s a real live threat and a real dangerous opponent.”

It’s sad that Quigg is probably right about Martinez being the best opponent of his career, but that’s not because Martinez is the best fighter in the 122 pound division. It’s because Hearn hasn’t matched Quigg up against anyone that I consider a good fighter yet during his time as his promoter. That will change eventually when the World Boxing Association eventually order Quigg to face the WBA Super World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux. They will eventually do this because Quigg has had his WBA title for two years now, and the way that the thing goes is he’s going to need to fight the WBA super champion Rigondeaux at some point. If Quigg takes the fight, he’ll likely lose by a lopsided decision. If he vacates, he’ll look bad. My guess is Quigg will vacate in order to save his unbeaten record.

Martinez, 29, is coming off of a 2nd round knockout victory over a fighter named George Gachechiladze (16-15-1) last December. Before that, Martinez was beaten by Frampton in September of last year.

“I will win this fight. I know it is going to be a tough fight. I am going to put in a performance,” Quigg said. “You are going to get comparisons with the performance. That’s just going to build the [Carl Frampton] fight even more.”

If Quigg wants to really accomplish something, he should take the fight with Rigondeaux rather than face a guy that was recently beaten by Frampton. There’s no upside in Quigg facing Martinez other than trying to prove that he can what Frampton did twice already.



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