By Matt Lieberman: Charles Martin is predicting a knockout victory over Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz this Saturday night on January 1st in their 12 round IBF heavyweight title eliminator at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
The former IBF champion Martin (28-2-1, 25 KOs) believes he’s well-prepared for the southpaw Ortiz’s fighting style after doing a lot of sparring with Cuban lefties during camp.
It’s hard to believe that it’s taken the talented 35-year-old Martin this long for him to get in a position to recapture his IBF title after losing it to Anthony Joshua in 2016.
After the 6’5″ Martin was stopped in two rounds by Joshua, fans thought he would quickly work his way back into position to fight for a belt within a year or two at the most.
But here we are going on nearly six years, and Martin still hasn’t gotten an opportunity to compete for a belt. Well, if Martin defeats the 43-year-old former two-time world title challenger ‘King Kong’ Ortiz on Saturday, he’ll be locked in as the IBF mandatory to champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Once that happens, it’ll be a waiting game for Martin before he gets a crack against whoever holds the IBF title in 2023.
Martin not worried about Ortiz’s southpaw stance
Prince Charles being a southpaw should make things a little easier for him to take on the lefty Luis Ortiz on Saturday, but maybe not so. Southpaws are used to facing fighters that use the orthodox stance.
So when they do occasionally compete against a southpaw, they’d just as confused as a right-handed fighter.
“It’s been a great camp. We’re winding down the final days of the week. Let’s get it,” said Martin to Fighthype on his match this Saturday night against ‘King Kong’ Ortiz.
“I’m excited about that, and I plan on putting on a great show for the people,” Martin continued. “It’ll be well worth it and letting PBC know they made the right decision by making me a headliner.
“Everything has been perfect because we have a great chemistry, and we’ve gelled over the past three, four years now,” said Martin about his trainer Manny Robles.
“Everything is coming together perfectly, and you guys will see some poetry in motion come Saturday. Yeah, I train for it, and I’m comfortable and feel good,” said Martin when asked if he’s prepared to fight the southpaw style of Luis Ortiz.
“It’ll be great, and it’s good for the fans to see how we do it too, you know? Usually, it’s an orthodox against a southpaw normally or orthodox against orthodox.
“It’s never two lefties, so they get to see that, and it’s pretty exciting. We’re both powerful, so let’s see who gets to who first. He’s [Luis Ortiz] a great fighter,” said Martin.
Ortiz is expected to win this fight, and most boxing fans believe Martin has almost no chance of winning. For Martin to win, he’s going to need to stay out of the way of Ortiz’s powerful left hands and make sure he doesn’t get stunned. Ortiz is an excellent finisher once he has his opponents hurt.
Prince Charles says fans not giving him a chance
Boxing fans are counting Martin out because he’s only faced one quality opponent in the last five years in Adam Kownacki in 2018, and he lost to him by a 10 round decision.
The other five heavyweights that Martin has faced were second-tier guys who lacked the talent to beat him.
Martin hasn’t done himself any favors by choosing to face exclusively weak opposition because he might be in for a shock when he gets inside the ring with Ortiz.
“He comes from the school of Cuban boxing, and they have the extensive amateur backgrounds,” Charles said of Ortiz. “So, yeah, he’s worked his way all the way up. He’s powerful, strong, fast, and he has a lot of attributes to him.
“So, we just train to be able to pick all that apart and not have anything come upon us during the fight that we haven’t seen. I had Cuban sparring partners, so it’ll be a good night.
“Even in the amateurs, he’s fought Orlando Solis. Probably because people tend to underestimate me,” said Martin when asked why he uses the word “shock” a lot when referring to fighters that he’s predicting that he’ll defeat.
“I’m kind of like the dark horse, the ace in the hole,” said Martin on people thinking he’ll lose. “So it’s giving them something they weren’t expecting. That’s how this is going to be.
“Everyone is always counting me out, but I’m used to it at this point. I don’t give a s***. It’s go all in or go home,” Martin said.
Martin’s last six opponents since his loss to Joshua:
- Gerald Washington
- Daniel Martz
- Gregory Corbin
- Adam Kownacki
- Michael Marrone
- Byron Polley
Luis Ortiz getting knocked out
As old as Luis Ortiz looked during Thursday’s press conference, it’s possible that Martin could win. Ortiz, 43, hasn’t fought in 13 months since his first round knockout win over Alexander Flores in November 2020, and before that, he’d been out of the ring for 12 months.
Ortiz’s inactivity in the last two years makes it difficult to know what he has left at this point.
We can see from looking at the Cuban that he’s aged since his loss to Deontay Wilder in 2019, and he seems like he’s put on some weight around his midsection.
I don’t know who will win the second fight,” said Martin when asked who would win the rematch between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk.
“It’s heavyweights; anything can happen. He could catch Usyk in this fight; you never know. But as far as me wanting to fight and who I’m going to fight, it’s too far in the future. All I can see is Luis Ortiz at this point.
“I wake up and see Luis Ortiz, and I go to sleep, and I see Luis Ortiz,” said Charles Martin. “I can sleep with my wife, and I see Luis Ortiz. He’s too f**** ugly. I’m turned off. That’s all I’ve been seeing in this camp.
“I’m ready to get this s*** over with. Do you feel me? It’s so big. To all the people that love me and all the people that support me, tune in. I’m going to give you guys what you want and what you came to see, and it’s going to be very exciting.
“It’s definitely something for you to kick off your New Year for you. Seeing your boy Prince Charles Martin getting a knockout,” Martin said.
Martin wants to fight Joshua two times
Charles says he wants to fight – and beat – Anthony Joshua twice before he retires from the sport soon.
The soon-to-be 36-year-old Martin is still feeling the sting from his second round knockout loss he suffered at the hands of a young Joshua back in April 2016 at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Although Martin says he’s not bitter about the defeat, you can tell it still bothers him because he never got the chance to show what he can do in that fight before getting sparked out.
What made it worse for Martin is he lost his IBF heavyweight title that he’s captured in his previous fight against Vyacheslav Glazkov in January 2016.
“In the perfect world for me, I would love to get Joshua for sure,” Martin said to DAZN News. “I want two fights with him. The first one doesn’t even have to be in America.
“It could be wherever he wants it to be. Then the second one will be out here in my backyard.
“I want to spank that a— two times back-to-back just so he knows because before we leave this earth, you got to know (that) you (are) not a badder man than Charles Martin,” said Martin.
Well, if Joshua avenges his loss to Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch and if Martin defeats Ortiz on Saturday, there’s a chance that he’ll get a shot at a rematch with Joshua.
However, even if Joshua beats Usyk, he’ll face WBC champion Tyson Fury for the undisputed heavyweight championship in the second half of 2022, and that’s going to be a difficult fight for AJ to try and win.
Anything is possible in boxing, but this writer has serious doubts that Joshua will beat both Usyk and Fury in 2022 to be the last man standing.
At this point, I’d say the chances of Martin getting a rematch with Joshua are slim to the point where it’s almost an impossibility.
Other fights on Saturday’s Ortiz vs. Martin card:
- Frank Sanchez vs. Christian Hammer
- Jonathan Rice vs. Michael Coffie
- Gerald Washington vs. Ali Eren Demirezen
- Frank Martin vs. Romero Duno
- Viktor Vykhryst vs. Iago Kiladze