Charles Martin Discusses Pedro Fight, Career, More

BoxingScene.com caught up with undefeated fast rising contender and newly minted NABO Heavyweight Champion “Prince” Charles Martin, who takes on Cuban giant Rafael Pedro in a 10 round main event on the Sugar Ray Leonard show benefitting Juvenile Diabetes tomorrow night at Santa Monica, CA. Martin weighed 246 and Pedro was 254.

BoxingScene: Congratulations on winning the WBO NABO against Alex Flores:

CM: Thanks.  I was super excited when I heard my fight with Alex as going to be for the NABO title.  Two young, undefeated heavyweights basically fighting for a title and a world ranking—it meant everything.  I love proving people wrong.  Everyone in Los Angles was saying that Alex was the future of the heavyweight division and that he was going to beat me.  I noticed early in the fight that my body shots were hurting him.  If I see a weak spot, I will expose it.    Once he showed that, I really started throwing hard hooks and uppercuts to the body and that was all she wrote.
 
BoxingScene: Tomorrow night you are fighting Rafael Pedro on the Sugar Ray Leonard Charity Event in Santa Monica:

CM: Yes.  Ray Leonard was one of my heroes growing up and I am honored to be representing his charity.  I think that one of the best things about success is that you can give back to the community.  May 20th is all about raising awareness and trying to find a cure for Juvenile Diabetes.  I want everyone in the LA area to come out and support this great cause—if you can’t be there go on http://sugarrayleonard.com/ to find out how you can donate.   It’s going to be a great night!
 
BoxingScene: Who do you want to fight next?

CM: I am not looking past May 20—I have to go out there and stay focused on taking care of business tomorrow night against a 6’7” 250lb guy who is coming in shape.   I have a great team behind me with King Sports as my promoter and Mike Borao as my agent.  Michael King is looking to take a sport that hasn’t changed in 50 years and bring it into the 21st century, and so am I.  It’s really no different than Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps, we are using cutting edge training methods to take it to our game to next level.  So, to answer your question about who is next, I am going to let them do what they’ve been doing and I will keep doing what I’ve been doing—knocking people out.     
 
BoxingScene: You are already NABO Heavyweight Champion and have been put in tougher than most modern-day heavyweight prospects:

CM:  I’ve been fighting other young prospects because I am looking to be great, not just average.  King Sports has been great for me because they let me fight as often as I want.  The only requirement is that they want me to fight good opposition so that I keep improving—and that’s fine with me because I want to be the best.  Alex Flores, Glendy Hernandez, Vincent Thompson, Joey Dwajko—fighting guys like that is helping me grow as a fighter.  My goal is to fight on HBO or SHO against a top rated contender by the end of the year and I think I am on track to reach that goal.  I would like to challenge for a title in early 2015, or sooner if the opportunity presents itself.
 
BoxingScene: Anything you want to say to BoxingScene readers:

CM: Thanks for this interview—you have a great boxing web site.  Thanks to all my fans for their support—I read all your tweets and I am grateful to have so many fans already.   Follow me @stprincecharles on Twitter.  Come out and support the Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation.  Boxing insiders know who I am and soon everyone will!