By Miguel Rivera
Former champion Roman "Rocky" Martinez (27-2-2, 16KOs) is putting on more size and muscle for the fight with Raymundo Beltran, for the vacant NABO lightweight title, as part of the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley undercard on April 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
It will be Martinez's first fight since lost his WBO super featherweight crown to Mikey Garcia last November. He struggled to make the weight, but managed to drop Garcia in the second before losing by knockout in the eight.
"The change has been from heaven to earth. We are working on strengthening the body, gaining more muscle mass and we're seeing the difference. Now I train with more enthusiasm, desires and energy. I can also eat better and healthier," Martinez told Carlos Gonzalez.
"Besides acquiring muscle mass, flexibility is essential. I noticed in sparring, when I was losing weight, that sometimes I had to limit the sparring so I wouldn't feel weak afterwards. Now I have more of a desire to work every day. This will be the biggest fight of my career and I'm looking for a world title fight. The winner will challenge Terrence Crawford and my goal is to be world champion at 135 pounds."
