By Sean Jones: Frank ‘The Ghost’ Martin is promising a knockout of the unbeaten Artem Harutyunyan tonight live on Showtime. Martin (17-0, 12 KOs) feels that it’s important that he scores a stoppage Harutyunyan (12-0, 7 KOs) because that’s the only way the fans will apply pressure on the champions Gervonta Davis & Devin Haney to face him.
Martin & Harutyunyan will meet in the 12-round main event in a WBC lightweight title eliminator at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas in Nevada.
Martin’s target list:
- Gervonta Davis
- Devin Haney
- Shakur Stevenson
At 28, Frank Martin can’t afford to take his time, waiting & hoping that one of the three will eventually give him a chance to face. He needs to dominate his opponents so he can make those three fight him because none of them are interested right now.
Martin wants to knockout Harutyunyan
“It was cool. I seen something in his eyes. You can’t always tell by looking at somebody’s eyes all the time, but for the most part, you can. So I seen a little bit, but that don’t even matter. What matter is fight night,” said Frank Martin to Fighthype when asked what he saw in the eyes of Artem Harutyunyan during their face-off during today’s weigh-in.
It doesn’t matter if Harutyunyan looked less than confident during his stare-down. Some people feel uncomfortable with eye contact, and that doesn’t mean they won’t fight tooth & nail in a fight. Martin needs to focus on the fight, not on what he supposedly saw during the face-off with Harutyunyan.
“I’m getting a stoppage. I don’t got to do it,” said Martin. “That’s what I want to do. Yeah, I’m getting a stoppage. I’m saying it. I just want people to know that when I say it, I’m going to do it.
“I’m going to go out there, and I’m, going to do my thing. I just seen a little twinkle in his eyes. A little breakage. Nothing too major, nothing too crazy. Nerves, yeah. Just nerves,” said Martin.
Will Martin knock out Harutyunyan? If Frank can do it, he’ll be the first to do it because this guy hasn’t been stopped or beaten before.
“I got to keep dominating,” Martin said. “I got to keep dominating. I’m a guy who people ain’t just going to be like, ‘Yeah. we want to fight him.’ That’s the situation I’m in.
“So, I just got to keep doing what I’m doing, knocking everybody down one by one until the people start demanding the fights, those big fights, saying, ‘Okay, they got to see him. The big name is Shakur, Gervonta Davis, and Devin Haney; they got to see me,” said Martin.
The fans will get on board the Frank Martin Express, but it’s going to require that he begin beating more notable opposition than what he’s been doing. If Martin can beat some of these guys, the fans will begin to push the top guys to fight him:
– Andy Cruz
– Edwin De Los Santos
– Vasily Lomachenko
– William Zepeda
– Isaac Cruz
– Floyd Schofield
– Raymond Muratalla
– George Kambosos Jr
Fans must vouch for ‘The Ghost’
“Once they feel like I’m all the way ready, which I feel I’m all the way ready, but once I catch all the fan’s eyes and they get to vouching for me, then that’s when all those fights are going to happen,” said Martin. “They got to happen.
“I’m humble, but I got to talk. I got to speak up and let these people know I’m here. I’m not just here sitting back and being quiet and get slept on. I’m not going to let these people sleep on me,” said Martin.
Frank needs to talk, but he also needs his management to do their part to get the fights that he needs against better opposition.
“So, if it takes me talking up and saying what I mean, I got to do that, and that’s what I’m going to do,” said Martin. “In every fight, I’m dominating. I got to keep my dominant streak going, whether I beat the hell out of somebody or knock them out.
“I feel like it’s for our health. All that stuff should be checked prior earlier. We should find out things sooner, not months later. It’s important because we could die in that ring,” said Martin.
