ESPAÑOLA NATIVE ANTONIO MARTINEZ PREPS FOR FIGHT AT BUFFALO THUNDER
ESPAÑOLA NATIVE ANTONIO MARTINEZ TO FIGHT AT BUFFALO THUNDER
Antonio Martinez didn’t always want to be a boxer. As a matter of fact, it happened as something of a lark.
He strolled into a gym one day, wanting to get a taste for hitting the heavy bag.
“I started to just hit the bags, just mess around,” he recalled. “Monica Lovato was there and she told me I had a lot of potential. So I started training with her. I took an amateur fight two months later after training. Since then, it’s been boxing. Eating, sleeping, boxing.”
Lovato — who was scheduled for, but never actually got to fight for, a world championship — and Martinez are both Española natives. They also both worked in dialysis and have considered the nursing field.
Several years ago, Martinez, 29, took a job in corrections.
“I had always wanted to work there since I graduated from high school,” he said. “They have really good retirement and benefits. It’s a job that challenges you every day. It’s hard and strenuous on the body and mind, but I wanted to help out the people in New Mexico, keeping those people behind bars.”
Martinez, 4-2-3 in his professional career, but 3-0 since joining the stable of Santa Fe trainer and promoter Pat Holmes a year ago, will fight Jan. 30 in a semi-main event bout in Cold War II at the Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino.
He will face Belen’s Derek Perez in a four-rounder in the 140-pound weight class.
“I just know his name, Derek Perez,” Martinez said of his opponent. “We’re just training for everything. In my opinion, I’ve seen it all. I fought a (soon-to-be) world champion — Olympic gold medalist — so there’s not anything that’s going to surprise me in there.”
The key to success in the ring, he said, “is making sure you’re ready physically and mentally. You can never get ready for one opponent because there might be an injury or something happens and he pulls out. Or they’ll train a whole different way than you’re expecting. So you just have to be ready and train for everything.”
And that’s not easy since he works 12-hour shifts at the New Mexico State Penitentiary and has a rather lengthy drive to and from work from his home in Española.
“I run for 45 minutes to an hour,” Martinez said. “I train in the gym for three hours. I don’t get a lot of sleep. Maybe four hours a day.”
Still, the effort is worth it, he said.
“The training, the competitiveness, it’s awesome,” he said. “It keeps you in really good shape. Conditioning-wise, diet. Every day is learning. You never really grasp the full concept of boxing. There’s always something to learn.”
Martinez got a great learning experience in his first professional fight, fighting on the undercard of a show headlined by Holly Holm before she switched to mixed-martial arts.
“So that was real nice,” he said. “I made my pro debut with a knockout in a minute-three, a first round knockout. It was a good way to start my career. And Holly, she’s really done a lot for the state. It’s nice to see her put us (New Mexico) back on the map.”
As for his future, Martinez said he would like to keep boxing until he gets some kind of title shot, even if it’s just at the state level.
“I’d like to push it as far it goes,” he said. “A title shot of any kind would nice.”
And when he’s done in the ring, the dream is to bring a gym to Española that is geared toward youth to help keep them busy and away from the dangers lurking for idle hands.
“That’s a goal for me,” Martinez said. “When I’m all said and done with my boxing, I want to start a program for the youth in Española and the north, Chama, Taos, anywhere, anybody would be welcome into the gym. Maybe I can get some funding from the state to help run that gym. Really, it’s to keep them away from drugs and negativity in general.”