Highly ranked super-lightweight contender Sandor Martin breezed past the limited challenge of Jose Felix last night in Barcelona.
The Catalonian hopes to become boxing’s first world champion from the region. And should undisputed champion Josh Taylor move to 147lbs then Martin is right in the mix to win one of the four world titles. Ranked four and five by the WBA and WBC, respectively, the 28-year-old will face far stiffer tests than the one presented by Felix, however.
The Mexican’s performance was one-dimensional and could not match the polished execution of Martin’s work.
Martin began the fight out of harm’s way. Clearly, he had watched his opponent and knew that the attacking raids would arrive, but the Spaniard ensured he wouldn’t be in the danger zone early on.
Patient and composed he waited for the opportunities to arrive, moments that would be built on mistakes made by his opponent.
The left hand of Martin was particularly potent in round 2, his jab fencer like and looked like picking his man off with only six minutes on the clock.
Felix raised his arm in the third after some mild success, an action he would continue to display. This though prompted Martin to respond. Thirty seconds after the Felix positivity Martin landed a beautiful left hand that put him in his place.
The fourth and fifth represented the best rounds of the fight from Felix. He grabbed the former on this scorecard, the only one throughout the ten rounds. He was more purposeful, hitting the chest and of note a shot to the top of the head during an exchange. And while he began the fifth in aggressive fashion for the first minute Martin soon took over. A counter right hand on the back foot and a last laugh body shot near the end reasserted his dominance.
Round six to ten were a masterclass from Martin. He grabbed the bull and punched it with accuracy that was combined with speed and movement. Knockout power isn’t a trait of the former European champion, instead he will make you look silly if you cannot compete with him.
Felix was game and hoped Martin would fight him with the fire that the Mexican had briefly showed but was soon extinguished from the sixth onwards. The 29-year-old became inaccurate, reckless and was getting pierced through the guard at times by his superior foe.
Martin began a showcase of shots as the fight neared its conclusion. The plan A of Felix was in tatters. The plan B never left the drawing room. Martin was pinging him with jabs, counters to head and body, and left Felix to punch air as he dodged the ever-increasing limp offence.
The final three rounds started with Martin thudding home his shots. The feet were staying still longer because Felix had nothing left to offer. The home fans were delighted by what they were seeing. Their man tried to close the show and had there been an 11th and 12th round he may well have provided that but time ran out as Martin continued to rain down the shots.
Scores of 100-90 (twice) and 99-91 reflected how far ahead Martin was for the 30 minutes in the ring.
“There have been a lot of surprises recently and I didn’t want to be another on the list,” he told DAZN’s Ade Oladipo.
Having caused one of the biggest of them in 2021 by beating Mikey Garcia in America Martin is now gunning for big fights in the ten stone division.
“I wanna face the best in that division. Ramirez, Zepeda, Lopez. I’m not here to play games.”