Roman Martinez is Nicky Cook's mandatory challenger to the title, and is being described as a tough opponent. I have never seen him fight and he seems to have a padded record, apart from 2 victories over Lorenzo (defeated Nate Campbell a few years ago and was involved in the debacle with Joe Cortez last year where he was gifted the win) and Estrada (who was beat by mitchell in 5 rounds). So how good is he?
dont think anyone will have seen him on tv in this country, given that his fights have mostly been in his homeland, plus i doubt many will have been televised at all so no chance for youtubing really to check him out properly. from what i've read he certainly seems a rugged sort of boxer who'll be easy to hit, but also tough to put a dent in.
i seen him fight on setanta, he capable of making it a interesting test he likes to fight is rugged and has decent ability and has good strength and good enough power to hurt cook, cook will be backed up and will have to mix it up not just go on run, really interesting fight, i can see martinez winning as long as he comes correct and doesnt do what he did in benavides fight and just brawl. he seems hot headed type fighter. heres some footage of him http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nPPtmZOIHtA
Martínez is sort of a tuned-down and less-chiny version of Yuriorkis Gamboa, he usually begins a bit slowly. But once he is hit, he disregards defense and pursues his opponent around the ring, engaging on the offensive. Most of his knockouts come from acumulation of damage, but he has decent one-punch power. His boxing and defense have improved during the last year, because has received some training from Iván Calderón. I'm not sure if he will beat Cook in his home turf, but if we see the Román Martínez that fought Daniel Jiménez, Nicky is in for one hell of a fight.
