Interview Dated 2005

Super Middleweight Miguel "El Tapatio" Martin

Miguel Martin is riding high. After racking up 17 straight wins after turning pro, he was beset by personal and financial problems in 2004. Martin says those problems led him to lose two of three fights, and come away with a draw last November. But in June Martin stopped Anthony Greeley in the first round, and he believes he is back on the road to national and international prominence, and eventually a title shot. The extremely likeable 28-year-old Baytown resident spoke with unusual candor and in great detail about his life, his career so far, and his prospects for the future.

HBS - So you were born in Chicago but grew up in Mexico? Tell us about how you first got involved in boxing.

MM - Well I grew up in a small village in Mexico and the world compared to here it's totally different. It's totally opposite. Over there you don't have chances, the dreams that you have over here. My life over there in Mexico where I was growing up, it was milk cows and plow the earth and just the same thing every day. Go to school, after school, take care of the farm with my dad and that was it. At age 15 I left home. I said "Mom and Dad bye-bye", and I went to look for adventures, look for who I was. I got to Chicago with my sister. I was 15 and at that time she was just married and I didn't have an idea at that time of what I wanted to do. I was still a kid. So what I did, I'm a citizen but since I was under age I had to buy illegal papers in order to work. I was working at this place as a welder. I started working and from 15 to 18 my life was very complicated. Why? Because I wasn't sure who I was or what I wanted. I never in my mind thought about becoming a boxer. I was way too big. I used to weigh 240 pounds and I never had that in mind. At age 18 my mom passed away, I went to Mexico, we stayed there for three months. We came back, we went to Georgia, then from Georgia we went to Omaha. Then in Omaha at age 18 I started high school. I couldn't graduate because the principal told me that one year after 21 you can't be in high school. So I decided to get my G.E.D. and while I was taking classes for my G.E.D. I involved myself in church with a youth group. I was mentoring them. At that time my goal was to get my G.E.D., go to the Army, get the G.I. Bill, go to college and then become a D.E.A. agent. I was focusing on that and then one Cinco de Mayo one little kid was murdered and it was a little gang-related thing and we had a meeting among all the churches, and the cops, everything, and I was invited because I was representing this youth group. So I remember these guys, Saul Zavala and Joe Baker, my ex-trainers, they stood up and they offered their gym to keep the kids busy in the afternoons so they won't be wandering on the streets. So I just kept it in my mind, "boxing, boxing". Two weeks after that I still remember it was on June 28th of 1997 I went there and I told Joe "I want to box". He looked at me and lifted up my shirt and said "You're pretty big to be a boxer. You need to lose some weight". He said "I'm going to go on vacation for two weeks. When I come back if I see some progress in you I'll work with you". In two weeks when he came back I was already 220 pounds. I was really into it. He trained me for two weeks and said "This guy really doesn't get it". The third week I started to pick it up and from then on to October 11th of 1997 I went down from 240 all the way to 190. I only had six amateur fights. I turned pro. I had two pro fights in Omaha and I couldn't get no more fights over there. So I told Joe "I'm going to follow my dream and see where I end up". He said "That's it. You got what you need. You got your heart, you got a style and you got a sport. Go for it." So I headed to Texas. I have an uncle here in Texas, I have my family that I didn't know I had. I came to Texas in September of 2000. I met my coach at the Radisson and I told him my situation. He told me to come to the gym and in three weeks he got me my first fight. From there on I've been with coach (Juan Lopez) and it's been tough. It's been very tough. I live here on my own. I work at the chemical plant. I get up at 4:30 in the morning. I go to work ten hours every day. After work I come to the gym and your body gets wore out. Your body gets wore out and these past years I've been living a tough life. In these four years I've been in love, I've been broke, I've been having good fights, I lost some, I had a beautiful, beautiful girlfriend, I love her. Last year, the year I thought it was going to be my year, it was the opposite. What I feared the most in career, right there, that year, boom, happened like that. At the time that I thought that it was going to be my prime.

HBS - Before you lost though you won the Texas belt. Tell us about that.

MM - I fought this guy from Phoenix, Arizona, Florencio Ibarra. He was pretty tough. He was very big. He hit real hard. He had fought some of the toughest guys out there. I think he had fought one champion. I think I knocked him out in the second or third round. I felt pretty good you know. He gave me a lot of confidence. We were trading punches in the middle of the ring and see this opening, I threw a short, straight right hand. He just went down. He got up wobbling and he went to a corner. The round ended. He went to a corner and he didn't come back for the next round. It felt pretty good. It was my first title. It's not the biggest title out there but to me it was something that meant a lot.

HBS - Then you fought Sebastian Hill who's from here in Houston.

MM - He was pretty big. Pretty big guy and very awkward. He'd had a lot of fights. He knows what he does. The record of a fighter doesn't mean anything. What matters is that you have experience. Anybody can be out there with 100 fights, 100 losses, but if that person knows what he's doing he's very dangerous. He was good. I think I was a little stronger, in better shape, and it was just my time. It was just right there. Then the next year I decided to go down to 160 and I fought Grady Brewer. He was my first loss. I'm not trying to put up excuses, I just think that I didn't take proper care of myself. Because I was so confident that I was winning all the time. I felt that this was my year, this was the time I'm going to shine. In three days it fell apart that week before the fight. I went to the hospital to the E.R. and I got the I.V. thing they put in you. And I think that thing puts weight on you. I came to the gym on Monday overweight. I had to weigh in on Wednesday and I had to lose 15 and a half pounds and I just completely dehydrated myself. I was eating very little, I was drinking very little water. How I stood up my dad told me "You stood up just because you have heart but you have no strength. Even though I was almost dead I won a split decision. I felt when I was hurting him. I felt it. But in the third or fourth round I tripped over my own feet and I asked myself "Gosh, what's happening?" I didn't want to realize that I was hurt and I had no legs. I went through. I lost it. It hurt me pretty bad. It was a very painful truth. I didn't expect it. I wanted to please Oscar, I wanted to please the public. It was a Golden Boy promotion. I wanted to please the whole world you know. I wanted to show them that I had a lot to offer. I guess I learned the hard way. Then after that we came back and fought in Laredo at 160 pounds. I won that fight (against Cardyl Finley). Very tough, very durable, very smart. My confidence still wasn't 100 percent but it was a little bit better. Then I took the offer to fight Enrique Ornelas from California. What I noticed was the knowledge of not knowing how to take care of myself. I just had all these negative things in my mind at the time. I wasn't employed. I had problems at home. I had physical problems, financial problems, love problems, everything. I took the fight and deep in my heart I had a doubt because I knew my body wasn't responding the way it usually does. My mind wasn't 100 percent like it used to be. When I lost the weight and went all the way down to 160 my body stayed small. I burned my muscles and your body takes long to recover. I overworked myself and we fought at 166 which is actually middleweight. I'm not bringing excuses Me and Enrique became friends. Sometimes he calls me. I don't have nothing against him. He's a great fighter and I lost you know. He just put me where I had to be. He just made me realize that something was wrong and my corner stopped the fight at the beginning of the 7th round. So we came home. I was pretty hurt emotionally. We fought again in November. At that time I was still down because I couldn't get a job. 2004 for many people here in Texas it was a very, very difficult year on employees and I was just going through a tough time. At that time I had broke up with my beautiful girlfriend. I still had no job. I still had no money to survive. I had no paycheck coming in. My mailbox was full of bills and my phone was full of messages that "Hey you gotta pay" and it was like God I just couldn't find a way out. We had this offer to fight this guy (Larry "Buckshot" Vaughn) and I said I'll take it. I said I'd get a little money and at that time I was already working with coach. There was still one thing in my mind and "boom" I got knocked down in the first round. I just sat myself on the floor and I put my hands on my knees and I just took a deep breath and started thinking like "What's happening?" I was like "Why stand up? I'll just stay here". That eight seconds to me was like hours to think. When I heard seven, eight I got up and I said "Hey, I'm in a fight". Coach tells me a boxers life is like a drunk. He keeps drinking, he walks, he falls, he gets up, he keeps drinking. Boxers are almost the same. You're fighting, you get dropped, you just hop up you keep fighting until you make it, until it's over. In those seconds I got up, I had that mentality, I went forward. I think that I won the fight because I believe he only beat me the first round. The rest of the fight, I won it, I actually got a point deducted but they gave me a draw but I thank God for all that. I really thank God that things happened just that way. Otherwise I don't think that I would have known how to appreciate myself. I wouldn't have known how to appreciate boxing. I wouldn't have known how to take care of myself physically and emotionally. I guess I learned the hard way. I might lose again. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow but I know that I'm not giving up on everything that happened to me.

HBS - You had a fight recently and it worked out pretty well for you. Tell us about that one against Anthony Greeley.

MM - I was very hungry. Finally this year I started this year by getting my job back. I got caught up on bills. Believe it or not financial situation it plays a lot on your mind. If you let it get to you it's really going to hurt you. That is the first thing. Second, my emotional problems, my feelings were more at ease. Then physically I consulted with a nutritionist and they told me what I needed. When you hurt yourself physically, you drop all this weight, the body's not going to respond the same way. So what it does the body sends a message to your brain. Your brain and your body can't do like it used to do so you go nuts. Anyway I got all these advisors. They provided me with all the stuff I needed to recover my strength physically. I believe I gained my mental strength with it too. I felt very confident. I felt ready to go. I felt that I learned how to be a more patient. I went in there. I was just feeling him out and all of a sudden I just felt this opening and I threw a left hook and then I went down to the body and it felt pretty good. He went down. I wish it would have lasted longer. That way I would have got more rounds but it gave me confidence. He gave me a lot of confidence and it made me feel pretty good about myself.

HBS - So now you're back on the right track.

MM - My agent is working on my fights and him and my trainer Juan Lopez they're working on getting the fights. I'm 28 years old. I believe that I have paid my dues already on the four and six-rounders. I believe that I'm in a good time where I can make something good out of myself in boxing. I think I have the experience that is needed. Of course a boxer will never, never stop learning this sport because there's always something to learn. But the way I feel right now, physically, emotionally, I think I'm in a time, it makes me think that all what I went through last year was for a reason. I feel that this is the reason why and I'm just ready. I just fought about two weeks ago and I'm staying here in the gym and keeping myself loose for anything that comes and staying ready.