Alvaro Morales: 6-0 prospect Martin takes on a 6’, 302 lbs, morbidly obese, 6-12-6 with 0 KO’s Mexican trial horse spoiler. Like his compatriot Seth Mitchell, Martin gets a (likely gift) draw. A terrible portent for things to come. Vyacheslav Glazkov: Having beaten no one more notable than 8-2-2 Joey Dawejko, 22-0-1 Martin is manoeuvred to a shot at the controversially vacant IBF title, against a fighter who’d received a dubious draw against Malik Scott and even more dubious decision wins against journeyman Derric Rossy and veteran Steve Cunningham. Having won the 2nd round and perhaps on his way to victory, Glazkov trips over and sustains a vicious career-ending knee injury which forces him to retire from boxing at the age of 31. Prince Charles Martin becomes a heavyweight champion by default; one of the most farcical captures of a world title in boxing history. Anthony Joshua: Martin signs to fight the fast-rising 15-0 prospect Joshua in London for a purse reported to be £6 million. After failing to land a single meaningful punch, Martin is dropped twice and quits halfway through the 2nd round, ending his legendary 85 day reign. Having famously referred to himself as “a God” in the buildup, Martin becomes the 2nd shortest reigning heavyweight champion in boxing history. Adam Kownacki: Now on the comeback trail, Martin takes on the 263 lbs, obese, 17-0, face-first Polish brawler Kownacki. Martin is walked down and outworked for the first 6 rounds of the 10 round contest, his late fight resurgence being a classic case of too little too late. Luis Ortiz: Having recorded a career best win over former title challenger Gerald Washington in his previous fight, Martin opts to sit on his ranking for almost 2 years. He agrees to fight former dangerman and 2x title challenger Luis Ortiz; now 42 years old with 2 KO defeats and virtually 25 months inactive in his own right. After a promising start where he dropped a rickety Ortiz twice, Ortiz rallies to knock Martin senseless with one punch before battering him all over the ring and stopping him in 6. Martin becomes the most significant victim of a 42+ year old heavyweight since Moorer lost to Foreman. All that being said, I admire the now 37 year old Martin’s will to keep enduring physical and psychological punishment in search of redemption that will probably elude him, which is also unnecessary materially as he’s a former titlist with several million in the bank.
It's arguable who the worst Heavyweight Champion of the 2010s is, but it's most definitely him or Bermane Stiverne. Stiverne got his by beating Chris Arreola, someone he had just beaten in what was supposed to be a title fight eliminator but turned out to be a preview title fight, and as pointed out in the OP Martin got his because the other dude fell and hurt himself while dodging a punch and latee went down from the pain from the slip, meaning Martin more or less became champion through hitting air. Then they lost their belts in their first defenses, although I guess some credit can be given in the willingness to fight those opponents. I will say, at least Stiverne tried to actually defend his title. Martin just kinda rolled over for AJ, whereas Stiverne became the first guy to take Wilder the distance. Granted, I'd say the better of the two right now is Martin because he's coming off a victory and managed to knock down Ortiz in what ended up being a losing effort, while Stiverne lost a staring contest to Jonathan Guidry, a guy who couldn't even beat Trevor Bryan. But as far as who was the lesser champion that decade, I kinda lean toward Martin due to the aforementioned rolling over and getting it through less than ideal means. Kinda hope he can tell us a little bit of something about Anderson, I feel like if he actually tries he might be able to test his chin and make him go longer than the usual 2-3 rounds. I doubt he's doing more than just showing up for some pay, but I'd be happy to be wrong. It wouldn't make up for the Kossobutskiy fight falling through but it'd be something, I guess.
From what little we saw of Martin in his championship reign compared to Stiverne in his, Stiverne was the clearly superior fighter. For one he KO'd Arreola in a war for the title: a far more impressive feat than winning by default after Glazkov's knee went in the 3rd. Stiverne then went 12 rounds with Wilder (something only Fury has also accomplished), showing great durability, determination and a 12 round gas tank, which is infinitely more impressive than quitting in 1.5 rounds vs Joshua (Whyte and Breazeale got to the 7th against the same version of Joshua). Aside from superior wins over Arreola x2, Stiverne had beaten better opponents in the amateurs (Price, Helenius) and started boxing in his teens rather than his 20's. Martin's "reign" was pretty much in a class of its own. I think Anderson will look to KO Martin in the first round. Martin is a late sub, the expectation is that Anderson blows the "bum" out to keep the hype train going and Anderson will want to do a more devastating job than a discredited Joshua. This could give Martin the chance to land something and he's certainly improved over the years. Whatever Martin's weaknesses and limitations, he's a big southpaw with power, experience and he's easy to underestimate.
Yeah man, exactly what I was saying. Stiverne actually earned his belt, whereas Martin just got lucky, and it wasn't even a scenario where he landed a lucky punch. He got lucky the other dude hurt himself and couldn't go on; it's really one of those situations where it's more appropriate to say "Glazkov lost it" than "Martin won it." The only thing that kinda sours Stiverne's is that he got it from beating a guy he already easily defeated immediately beforehand, and even then you can at least say he improved on his performance, going from a shutout to a KO in half the time. Sure, he lost in his first defense in a very one sided bout, but he became the first to make a knockout artist see the final bell and said fighter went on to be considered one of the top heavyweights of this generation. Meanwhile, Martin's first defense saw him also go up against one of the top guys, but rather than giving a good fight he just rolled over. I mean, I guess you can give kudos to both for taking on big challenges in their first defenses instead of fighting inferior competition to milk the belts for all their worth, but it's pretty clear which came to fight and which came to roll over for a big payday. But here were are nearly a decade later and situation is totally inverted. I'd say Stiverne is the worse fighter right now and Martin is trying to go out with a better looking resume. Since their respective title losses, Stiverne has won only a single fight, and even in that one he was knocked down in the first round. Then after nearly two years of inactivity he got knocked down three times by Wilder in one round on the way to becoming one of his quickest knockouts, then went on to have two more back to back knockout losses. Most recently he lost a wide decision in what can only loosely be called a boxing match, in that gloves were involved and two people very occasionally threw punches. Martin, meanwhile, has gone on to knock out or knock down all but one of his subsequent opponents. The lone exception was Adam Kownacki, but even then you can at least say he put in a good effort against an undefeated contender and very nearly became the first guy to beat him, certainly giving him his first real test along the way. In his other losing effort he knocked Ortiz down twice before getting knocked out himself, but again, at least he tried to win that one. So if Martin shows up to turn in a good effort, and it's not out of the realm of possibility he does considering the above and the fact he was already planning on fighting an upcoming prospect just a couple of months back, he could turn out to be a good test for Anderson. I don't see him pulling off the upset, but given that he's a southpaw, carries some decent pop and will be fighting a guy who already lets himself take too many hits, I see this fight having the potential to tell us a bit about Anderson. At the very least it can give us an idea of his power. As far as I'm aware, Martin's only been down against AJ and Ortiz, both of whom are regarded as having good knockout power. I'm just hoping the guy who showed up against Ortiz is the one we see this Saturday, and not the one who rolled over for AJ. Give us the God Charles, not the dog!
Yeah Martin now is definitely better than Stiverne, but that's due to Stiverne being shot. Stiverne was a half decent fighter at one point the fact he beat Arreola shows that. But after he won the title he basically just gave up and spent more time at all you can eat buffets than the gym and ate himself out of what prime he had left, just like Andy Ruiz did after upsetting Joshua. Martin too kind of gave up after winning the belt, he sold his belt to Joshua and just laid down, happy with the big payday. But he then seemed to take himself a bit more seriously, he looked to be the best version we'd seen vs Ortiz, so it seems he's regained some hunger to prove something. So maybe he can test Anderson. If Anderson is legit he should smash Martin easily but I suspect he might look less than convincing. But I suspect the Ortiz performance was just an aberration, he was overly weight for his last fight so what desire he had may have gone after the loss to Ortiz.
For me, a bum is someone who comes to lie down. Martin won a belt on a fluke injury and came to lie down in his first defence, Stiverne KO'd Arreola in a war and was willing to take a 12 round beating from Wilder in his first defence. So it's a no-brainer. Parker was also a bigger bum than Stiverne imo. Relatively gutless survival mode performance against Joshua; he knew he was never winning a decision in Britain (mutual opponent Takam showed that Joshua was a better pointfighter). And the Whyte fight came down to mentality, with Parker allowing himself to be bullied and not showing enough desire to win.
36 year old Stiverne checked out after Wilder 1 and started blowing up in weight. He'd been undisciplined earlier in his career too but he did put together a decent 4 year run, from 20-0 Manswell to Wilder 1, with wins over Austin and top 10 ranked Arreola x2 in between. Martin's best run is poor by contrast: losing to Kownacki, beating Washington and getting KO'd by 42+ Ortiz. Neither man has really done anything positive in boxing terms outside that. If Martin upsets Anderson then he pulls ahead, assuming Anderson goes on to achieve something himself.
