(Credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME) By Dan Ambrose: Despite some recent defeats that have slowed his career, former IBF super bantamweight world champion Kiko Martinez (35-6, 26 KOs) is confident of victory on Saturday night when he challenges WBA Super World featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (31-0-1, 17 KOs) in their fight at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
The fight will be televised by Showtime Championship Boxing. The Santa vs. Martinez fight has kind of dropped off the radar screen for the most part, as it’s been crowded out by the attention the Carl Frampton vs. Scott Quigg and Terence Crawford vs. Hank Lundy fights have been receiving.
Another part of the problem is that the fans see the Santa Cruz-Martinez fight as a mismatch, because Martinez is moving up in weight and he’s had recent losses to Quigg and Frampton. That doesn’t make Martinez look like a credible opponent. Martinez, 29, is obviously getting the fight with Santa Cruz because he’s a former world champion, and is more recognizable to the hardcore boxing fans.
The casual fans of course have never heard of Martinez, but they’re not the ones that will be tuning in on Saturday night to see the Santa Cruz-Martinez fight. This is going to be driven by the hardcore boxing fans.
“I have faced much stronger boxers than Leo and come Saturday, all of those who did bet on me for this fight, I am going to make you a lot of money,” Martinez said. “I feel that Leo Santa Cruz is a great fighter, he has beat some incredible fighters. He’s a great athlete and boxer. Sometimes people will try to make him out to be more than he actually is”
Santa Cruz has been getting a lot of attention during his career because he’s been producing wins. He recently beat Abner Mares in his last fight in August of 2015, and he looked great in doing so.
That was a superb performance from Santa Cruz. What makes Santa Cruz so good is he can box as well as punch. We saw Santa Cruz do both in the Mares fight. But when he’s facing a guy that he feels comfortable with, Santa Cruz is capable of throwing 100 punches per round for as long as it takes to get the knockout. Martinez isn’t able to do that. He’s someone that loads up and swings for the fences with every punch. He can’t throw a lot of shots and he’s not a very good boxer. Martinez also has a chin problem, as we’ve seen in his knockout losses to Frampton and Quigg.
Martinez has won his last three fights against Miguel Gonzalez, Everth Briceno and Herald Molina. Those are not world class fighters, however. Those were all confidence booster/tune-up level opposition to get Martinez back to his winning ways after he was blown out in two rounds by Quigg last July.
“They are mistaken with what they see in me. I am not to be mistaken as the underdog here,” Martinez said.
Martinez is the underdog in this fight whether he wants to admit it or not. He needs to be careful in the ring at all times on Saturday night because Santa Cruz could take him out quickly if Martinez fights in his usual brawling style of fighting.
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