I really liked watching Julio Cesar Martinez fights. They always had a Danny Lopez, either fighter could go down at any time vibe. The bouts were action-packed, entertaining and unpredictable. JCM had a great punch and less than stellar set of whiskers. He lost his first two fights and then won 14 straight. The last of the 14, a 5th round knockout of the then undefeated Andrew Selby, earned Martinez a flyweight title shot against champion Charlie Edwards. Martinez won the title via third round KO. Shortly after, the result was changed to a no-contest because Martinez was ruled to have hit Edwards while he was on the canvas. What followed was a series of misfortunes, self caused and otherwise. Martinez suffered numerous hand injuries, fight cancellations as opponents fell out and at least two separate positive drug tests. While all of that was going on Martinez won and then defended the 112 pound championship five times, including a fight or two where Martinez, himself, was put on the canvas. His career really started going downhill in 2022 when he moved up to junior bantamweight to take a shot at Roman Gonzalez' title. Martinez was dominated and while there is no shame in that, the fact that he moved up a weight class and then came in a pound a half over the weight limit is pretty shameful. Martinez failed another drug test in 2024 and was stripped of his flyweight title. Since then Martinez has had just one fight. In May of 2025 he was stopped in eight rounds by a man who had won just one of this previous six fights and has lost both of his fights since then. Martinez is now 31 years old and is almost surely done as a high level boxer. That's too bad. I really liked him.
Very awkward boxer with good power, I remember thinking that he would be a good test to see if Chocolatito still had anything left in the tank when they fought (and he evidently did). You're right in that his career at the top level is done, I think his style depended heavily on his athleticism and now that he's getting older, his lack of fundamentals will be a major issue. That fight against McWilliams Arroyo was bizarre, I always thought that they should have had a rematch but it kept falling through (was just one of those cursed matchups I guess)
That's a good point about depending on his athleticism because he certainly did not depend on solid fundamentals.
In his defense, the stoppage loss was due to an obvious arm injury. So that's no big deal, it happens. Timestamped. This content is protected
A cheater without his products isn't worth much, as we've seen recently. I am almost certain that he was doped during his victories against Cristofer Rosales & Andrew Selby.
