By James Hughes: As well as former champions, this card also went badly for reigning champions; Nicky Cook followed Bradley Pryce out of the door early on the way to losing his title to the mandatory challenger, Roman ‘Rocky’ Martinez. Cook was unable to make a voluntary defence of his title late last year, so he ended up facing as tough a first defence as any fighter is likely to get. Unfortunately, it’ll be his only defence title.
The old football cliché of ‘a game of two halves’ could easily be adapted to ‘a fight of two halves’ for this short but exciting battle. Cook started brightly, using his jab authoritatively and landing some power shots behind it. Though Martinez would counter well in the second half of the round, he spent more time going backwards and was outworked by Cook. The champion ratcheted up the tempo in the next round; landing hooks to Martinez’s body and a nice uppercut to his head. Late in the round he landed a good left hook that Martinez wobbling and close to touching down with his glove or needing the ropes to stay up.
Cook started the third well with some thudding shots to the body of Martinez, but the Puerto Rican had started to find some rhythm; he was countering with his own shots and holding his ground better. The fight was bubbling nicely but in the 4th it took a dramatic twist. After both exchanged shots early on, Cook was caught by a right hand that shook him up a bit. Martinez had been stalking his man and pounced now the opportunity presented itself. With Cook retreating towards the ropes and a bit flat-footed, he unleashed a stunning left uppercut that put Cook on the canvas. The Englishman made it to his feet by the count of 9, albeit with the aid of the ropes. He bravely tried to halt Martinez’s attacks by attacking rather than defending, each landing a couple of shots before Martinez dropped Cook again, this time with a left hook. Having not properly recovered from the last knockdown, and with no ropes to reach out to, Cook struggled to his feet for the count of 9 again, upon which the referee waved an end to it. Cook would probably have struggled to make it to the end of the round, which had over 30 seconds left.
Cook summed up what a missed opportunity this had been as he dropped his head into the ropes. A win against the dangerous and talented Martinez would have been a very decent scalp, but instead Cook has to rebuild and force his way into contention for another title shot.
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