Kiko Martinez fights Jordan Gill on the Katie Taylor undercard in London tonight. Maurice Brosnan Reports from London. 15 hours ago 11,186 ...
“The likes of Katie and Kiko are on a different level but… “There are fighters who just keep at it to put bread on the table and keep their kids fed. The fairytale finish is scarce in sport and even rarer in boxing, but that is his dream. Seven years ago, he was desperate to become a multi-weight champion and dropped a division to make it happen. He left in the seventh round. That isn’t old in the grand scheme of things but it is old for a middleweight. As his career continued, Martinez worked his way up and into the heart of Irish fight fans. In 2007 he marched to the ring ready to roll. It was only fitting that his headline fight would be the last stand, the venue was to be demolished and rebuilt as the 02 after. “He was a massive underdog,” says Rock. 15 years after he exploded in Dublin and shook the nation, Kiko Martinez remains an exemplar of power. HE CLIMBS THE scales after a lifetime and little has changed.
Kiko Martinez became European champion for the fifth time and lined himself up another world title shot at the age of 36 as he dropped Jordan Gill four ...
He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. After a fact-finding first round, Martinez seemed to have found his range early in the second as he landed a left hook that had Gill backing away. Rather than a third fight with Warrington, Martinez said he was interested in facing WBA champion Leigh Wood. There was no escape now and when a left hook dropped Gill on his back, he raised one hand in victory. By now his face was a mess and a straight right bowled him over for the third time. Martinez, the former two-weight IBF champion, was comfortably the toughest test of his career.
Jordan Gill's world title hopes seem a long way off tonight after he was comprehensively beaten by Kiko Martinez at the London Arena.
Gill was down twice in round three to Martinez uppercuts and the 60 second break was not enough as another right and a left hook saw him hit the canvas twice more in the fourth. After shading a first round where he connected with twice as many punches as the veteran Spaniard, Gill shared a level second round – but for the next six minutes there was only one man in it.