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

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 bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

. He is a world champion in two

weight classes Weight classes are divisions of competition used to match competitors against others of their own size. Weight classes are used in a variety of sports, especially combat sports (such as boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling). Altern ...

, having held 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, t ...

title from 2021 to 2022, and the IBF super-bantamweight title from 2013 to 2014. At regional level, he held the European super-bantamweight title three times between 2007 and 2013, and the European featherweight title in 2018.

Amateur career

Martínez fought extensively as an amateur. 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 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 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 Q ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, 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 Qu ...

filled with expectant Irish boxing fans and the fight was beamed live on RTÉ, 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 off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookm ...

s at

odds Odds provide a measure of the likelihood of a particular outcome. They are calculated as the ratio of the number of events that produce that outcome to the number that do not. Odds are commonly used in gambling and statistics. Odds also have ...

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

Controversy

Martínez had signed to fight another Irishman, the

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

-based former WBC

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from bantam chickens. B ...

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 fr ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

'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 In boxing, a weight class is a measurement weight range for boxers. The lower limit of a weight class is equal to the upper weight limit of the class below it. The top class, with no upper limit, is called heavyweight in professional boxing an ...

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 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 Rendall Munroe (born 1 June 1980 in Leicester, England) is a retired English super bantamweight boxer. Munroe currently resides in Leicester. He is also a former holder of the EBU and Commonwealth Super Bantamweight titles. His dayjob as a bi ...

; 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 ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

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 former professional boxer from Northern Ireland who competed from 2009 to 2021. He is a former two-weight world champion, having held the WBA (Unified) and IBF super-bantamweight titles between 2014 a ...

in front of Frampton's home fans in the

Odyssey Arena The Odyssey Complex, formerly Odyssey Centre, is a sports and entertainment complex located within the Titanic Quarter in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The complex originated in 1992 and came into fruition in June 1998. It opened in December 2 ...

. Martinez lost by TKO in Round 9 losing the European Super-bantamweight 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 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 WBA super-bantamweight title from 2013 to 2016, and the British super-bantamweight title from 2011 to 2012. Personal life Qu ...

Leo Santa Cruz Leo or Léo may refer to: Acronyms * Law enforcement officer * Law enforcement organisation * ''Louisville Eccentric Observer'', a free weekly newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky * Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity Arts a ...

and

Gary Russell Jr Gary Allen Russell Jr. (born June 5, 1988) is an American professional boxer who held the WBC featherweight title from 2015 to 2022. As of October 2022, he is ranked as the world's seventh best active featherweight by '' The Ring'' magazine, fo ...

Professional boxing record

References

External links

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