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In one of the biggest shockers of the weekend, 35-year-old veteran Kiko Martinez (43-10-2, 30 KOs) became a two division world champion when he knocked out Kid Galahad in six rounds to capture the IBF featherweight title.
Martinez was a huge underdog and many felt he shouldn’t have been receiving the title shot.
Galahad dominated the majority of the first five rounds – but out of nowhere Martinez connected with a massive right hand at the end of the fifth – to send Galahad crashing down. He got up to his feet on very unsteady legs, but the round had already concluded before Martinez could followup.
At the start of the sixth, Martinez went right after Galahad and connected with another huge right hand to send the Sheffield fighter down and out. The fight was quickly waved off.
“I have been focused exclusively on having a world title opportunity for three years. I have not had days off, I have not had vacations, my family has had to lock up practically the whole year because of my mindset to be world champion again. The truth is that in the end we all rowed in the same direction to achieve it, but I have to say that it was very hard,” Martinez told Enrique Mellado.
“If I wanted victory I had to get it by KO. I had no chance of beating him on points. Honestly, he was faster and more accurate than me, he was scoring more than me, but the wear and tear I was putting on him down below to the body was the work that could pay off throughout the fight. I had to lose rounds at first so I could exploit my trump card later.
“[My corner] told me not to go crazy, to be patient, that my moment would come and I could put my hand on him, and that’s what happened in the fifth round. I knew that it was a decisive moment [when he went down] and that I had to take advantage of it if I wanted to finish [the fight] as soon as possible.
“I don’t want to keep [fighting] for too much longer. I want to invest one more year of my life in this sport and I don’t want to go much further than that. I wouldn’t want to continue to punish my body, my mind and my joints much more. You can bet one more year on me and then I will leave this beautiful sport, although I will continue dedicating myself to it, but doing other things.”