Francisco "Kiko" Martínez Sánchez (born 7 March 1986) is a Spanish former

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

who competed from 2004 to 2023. He was a world champion in two weight classes, holding the IBF super-bantamweight title from 2013 to 2014, and the IBF

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, ...

title from 2021 to 2022. At regional level, he held the European super-bantamweight title three times between 2007 and 2013, and the European featherweight title twice in 2018 and 2022 respectively.

Amateur career

Martínez fought extensively as an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

. He fought 40 amateur bouts and never lost, with 38 of those victories being by knockout. Martinez stated that he "could have gone to the Olympics – the Spanish amateur boxing association wanted me to sign a four-year contract but I wanted to turn professional".

Professional career

Martínez turned professional on 11 June 2004, defeating David Casero by knockout in the third round on a card that included Javier Castillejo.. Retrieved 10 December 2016. Martínez went on to win all of his first 11 fights with each victory coming via a

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

within four rounds.

European super-bantamweight champion

On 10 March 2006, Martínez faced Frenchman Salem Bouaita for his EBU European Union super bantamweight title at Pabellón de Elche in Spain. This was Martinez's first fight which went past four rounds and the fight went the full scheduled 10 rounds. Martínez was given a unanimous points win and won the title. Martínez won a further four fights and became the mandatory challenger European super bantamweight title.

Martínez vs. Dunne

The EBU made Martinez the mandatory challenger for Irish fighter, Bernard Dunne's European super bantamweight title. Martínez and Dunne clashed on 25 August 2007 at the Point Theatre,

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland. This was Martinez's first fight outside of Spain and despite being the challenger he was confident of victory. Martinez stated before the fight that he "might be a little shorter than Bernard but I'm 5 foot 4 inches of a headache for him". On the night of the fight the

Point Depot The Point Theatre (sometimes referred to as the Point Depot or simply as the Point) was a concert and events venue in Dublin, Ireland, that operated from 1988 to 2007, visited by in excess of 2 million people. It was located on the North Wall ...

filled with expectant Irish boxing fans and the fight was beamed live on

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

, the Irish national television broadcaster. The fight started with Dunne keeping his guard low and circling Martínez. However, Martínez quickly had Dunne on the canvas with an overhand right. Dunne appeared stunned and unaware of what had happened. Dunne beat the count but was floored twice more before the referee stopped the fight within only 90 seconds of round one. The Martínez camp stated that they knew there would be a first round victory and that many of them had placed

bets Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three elem ...

worth thousands of pounds with Irish

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays out bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outco ...

s at

odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outcome. Odds are commonly used in gambling and statistics. For example for an event that is 40% probable, one could say that the odds are or When gambling, o ...

of 66/1 that Martínez would win in the first round.

Controversy

Martínez had signed to fight another Irishman, the

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

-based former WBC

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports and weightlifting. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class ...

champion,

Wayne McCullough Wayne Pocket Rocket McCullough (born Wayne William McCullough; 7 July 1970) is a former professional boxer from Northern Ireland who competed from 1993 to 2008. He held the WBC bantamweight title from 1995 to 1997, becoming the first boxer f ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

's Kings Hall on 1 December 2007. McCullough had not fought for over two years and the Kings Hall venue was sold out for the fight. It was agreed that the non-title fight would take place at . However, on the day before the fight there was uproar during the weigh-in and the fight was cancelled amid chaotic scenes. McCullough had already contracted to fight at 2 lb over the championship weight and he weighed in at . However, Martínez failed to make the agreed weight and was 1.75 lb over the agreed weight. Martínez was given a couple of hours to shed the excess weight, but did not return to weigh in again and the scales were closed by a

BBBofC The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) is the governing body of professional boxing in the United Kingdom. History The British Boxing Board of Control was formed in 1929 from the old National Sporting Club and is headquartered in Cardiff. ...

official. A furious McCullough stated ''"I couldn't believe it. He comes in over the weight and then after being asked to take it off he just sits there and does nothing. I just can't believe what has happened. I was ready to fight and ready to win and he comes in that much over the weight."''.

First loss

Kiko Martínez made his first defence of the EBU super bantamweight title against Rendall Munroe; a title he had successfully taken from Bernard Dunne in August 2007. The fight against Munroe took place at the Harvey Hadden Leisure Centre,

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

on 7 March 2008. The fight turned out to be fairly uneventful as Munroe countered Martínez by blocking and counterpunching, without ever troubling the champion. Meanwhile, Martinez failed to land the big shots that had seen him stop Bernard Dunne. The fight went the full 12 rounds, with Munroe winning by a majority points decision.

Martínez vs. Frampton

On February 9, 2013, Martínez faced

Carl Frampton Carl Frampton (born 21 February 1987) is a Northern Irish former professional boxer who competed from 2009 to 2021. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the WBA (super) super bantamweight title in 2016, and the IBF su ...

in front of Frampton's home fans in the Odyssey Arena in

. Martinez lost by TKO in Round 9 losing the European

Super-bantamweight Super bantamweight, also known as junior featherweight, is a boxing weight classes, weight class in professional boxing, contested from and up to . There were attempts by boxing promoters in the 1920s to establish this weight class, but few sanct ...

title.

and Kiko fought again in September 2014 in Northern Ireland. “Since the 9th of February 2013, when I get up at five in the morning to go training, I remember him. For me, to defeat him is a greater motivation than the chance to unify the belts," said Martinez. "I will never forget that night and I will prove that it was just a bad day for me. I am world champion now and my legacy will be bigger for facing Carl Frampton.”

IBF super-bantamweight champion

On 17 August 2013 in New Jersey, Martínez beat

Jonatan Romero Jonatan Eccehomo Romero Preciado (born December 14, 1986, in Cali, Colombia) is a Colombian boxer best known to qualify for the Olympics 2008 at bantamweight. His name is sometimes spelled ''Jonathan'' or ''Jhonatan'' in press reports but not ...

by TKO to win the IBF

Super Bantamweight Super bantamweight, also known as junior featherweight, is a boxing weight classes, weight class in professional boxing, contested from and up to . There were attempts by boxing promoters in the 1920s to establish this weight class, but few sanct ...

title. After 2 successful defenses, Martinez then had a rematch with

resulting in Martinez losing his IBF belt. Since then Martinez has had ten wins and 5 losses. Three of these losses were against World Champions

Scott Quigg Scott Quigg (born 9 October 1988) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2007 to 2020. He held the World Boxing Association super-bantamweight title ( Regular version) from 2013 to 2016, and the British super-bantamweight ti ...

Leo Santa Cruz Leo is the Latin word for lion. It most often refers to: * Leo (constellation), a constellation of stars in the night sky * Leo (astrology), an astrological sign of the zodiac * Leo (given name), a given name in several languages, usually mas ...

and Gary Russell Jr.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Martínez, Kiko 1986 births Living people Spanish male boxers Sportspeople from Elche 20th-century Spanish people World super-bantamweight boxing champions World featherweight boxing champions European Boxing Union champions International Boxing Federation champions 21st-century Spanish sportsmen