12 years ago today: Francisco "Sensación / Kiko" Martínez Sánchez vs. Jeffrey "Mongoose" Mathebula

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IBF world super bantamweight championship at stake, Martínez's first defense.

Now, some fans may not realize how unique it was for somebody like Kiko to even reach the mountaintop and become a world titlist - but for Brits (and those who followed the Brit scene) in those days he was the distillation of everything you imagine when you hear the word "trier". Bollocks-out pressure, compact build & stance, little regard to defense, hard chin, and okay in every category but great in none. The sort that gives on-the-up prospects a "come to Jesus", sink-or-swim moment, but whom you don't expect to ever be king of their division.

Indeed, by late 2013, it had been a decade in the game for the Spaniard (then a 27 year old, but if you were to have reminded most fans of that fact then, we most likely would have needed to Google it to verify, because he already looked forty-some-odd ) with his level clearly demarcated at European level. He brought in 4 losses, including a failed world championship bit against Takalani Hyweth "Panther" Ndlovu and the pilfering of his EBU title by Rendall Munroe...who then denied him a second reign in their rematch. He would later recapture, but now it would be Carl Frampton (like Munroe and later Josh Warrington, a member of the "beat Kiko twice club") spoiling the party.

So, when he scored an upset stoppage victory over previously undefeated Colombian incumbent Jonathan Eccehomo "Momo" Romero Preciado - the boxing community stood up and took notice. Him? Somebody good enough to hold a world title belt lost to basic pressure fighting midget Kiko Martínez?

Thus, "good for him" sentiments aside, expectations were that it would be a hot potato. IIRC the bookmakers didn't outright favor Mathebula, especially with Kiko being allowed to make this mandatory defend at home in the Pabellón Esperanza Lag, but many observers waiting for the other shoe to drop figured it could well end up being Mathebula playing the Munroe/Frampton role on a larger stage. If not, then certainly he would run him extremely close, perhaps enough to warrant a rematch on neutral turf where he could finish the job and burgle the gold.

True, at this point Mathebual was already 34 years old - but almost everything pointed to him being poison for the new champ. He boasted a half a foot of both height & reach over Martínez. The last thing a short pressure fighter wants is to be kept at the paddle-ball end of a rangy jab all night. Even worse if that beanpole has an iron beard to fall back in should you worm your way inside - and indeed, Mathebula had only ever been halted once, ten years earlier.

On top of the measuring tape advantages, Mathebula was on a heck of a run of form considering he was a mid-thirties super bantam. Within the last few years, he had run the very highly regarded (Ring magainze #8 p4p ranked) Celestino "Pelenchín" Caballero extraordinarily close, captured this same belt that Kiko now held, won a trilogy with countryman Ndlovu, and gone the distance with a prime Nonito "Filipino Flash" Donaire. Not too shabby!

From the opening bell, however, it was clear that many assumptions about this contest were wrong. Those six inches of verticality and wingspan? Meaningless. Spanish home cooking? Immaterial. Kiko being a career nearly man not able to find a gear to defeat world rated opposition? Ha, poppycock.

While he is best remembered for his many trials & tribulations - often on the hard-fought but losing end - against opponents from the UK, this IMO is the finest and most complete performance of Martínez's career. Whether is was his compatriotas vociferously cheering him on, or a desire to make his critics eat crow and demonstrate that beating Romero was no fluke - he fought with serious bell to bell conviction here. It is the absolute apotheosis of his particular style - stifling, relentless pressure. This is how you deal with half-a-foot disadvantages. Granted, if the person in Kiko's position has a weak chin, or if the person in the Mongoose's is a Pavlikesque or Hearns-ish phenom blessed with wiry whip-snap KO power, then it's a different story. But otherwise, if you are short and reasonably tough and your rival towers above you but isn't packing one-shot dynamite - this is a master clinic in exactly what you do.

 

Kiko's run was wild indeed. In the beginning of 2013, after the mid February first Frampton loss, most had probably written off his chances of ever becoming a world champ. Then all within an eight month span he deflowers & upsets Romero, defends his title from a legit contender in Mathebula here, and then INSANELY followed that up with a second defense against Hozumi "Raitoningu Furashu" Hasegawa. Granted this was late in the Japanese southpaw's career, but that's a W that probably would have struck everybody as off-limits to somebody of Martínez's level before he actually did it. Hasegawa had only been stopped by a pair of Mexican monster punchers in Jhonny González and Fernando Montiel.

Then of course along comes Carl Frampton again to rain on the parade. Martínez' run of 13-7-2 after Hasegawa was respectable (including a second division championship at feather, wrested from Abdul Bari "Kid Galahad" Awad) but his late 2013 into early 2014 reign is undoubtedly his very best period.