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This
was not a chess match or a fight in which strategies
played a major role. This was a question of which
fighter could throw and land more, harder shots for
six rounds, while taking the best the other had to
offer. Martinez and Verdin essentially stood
toe-to-toe and hammered each other to the head and
body the entire time. ..
Verdin did not fight
like someone with a record of 7-32-2 with 1 KO.
While Verdin
landed a solid right in round one, Martinez still
dominated the early rounds, landing uppercuts, hooks
to the body and combinations to the head.
The fighters remained
very busy throughout the match. A shot from Martinez
snapped Verdin's head back in round three and the
men threw punches at a blistering pace.
Martinez seemed to
hurt Verdin with a body shot in round three, backing
him up afterward with combinations to the body and
head, but Verdin continued to fire back punches.
Round four was
Verdin's best round to that point, as he began to
show some movement, landing to the body and head of
Martinez.
The exchanges continued through round five and into
round six. During the final round Verdin showed more
movement and landed some shots from the outside
early in the round.
"The guy was
tough," Martinez said afterward. "I feel great. He
had fought a lot of world-class opponents. I knew I
was going to have to throw 200 punches in that last
round. All that hard work in the gym paid off."
ct.
Two judges scored the bout 59-55 and the third 58-56
for Martinez, who
improves to 15-1 with 9 KO's. Martinez says he hopes
to fight a top ten contender early next year and
fight for a world title by the end of 2008.
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