Charles Martin: I Would’ve Knocked Out Breazeale For Sure
Jan 9, 2016 • 10:38 AM ET
By Keith Idec
Even after securing a world title fight, heavyweight contender Charles Martin didn’t want to withdraw on such short notice from what would’ve been a nationally televised fight against undefeated Dominic Breazeale on December 12 in San Antonio.
The powerful southpaw from North Hollywood, California, tried to convince his handlers to let him to battle Breazeale (16-0, 14 KOs) and come back five weeks later to face Ukraine’s Vyacheslav Glazkov (21-0-1, 13 KOs) for the unclaimed IBF title January 16 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn (Showtime). Unlike any of the 23 times he stepped in the ring since turning pro three years ago, the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Martin (22-0-1, 20 KOs) lost that fight.
“I wanted to do both of the fights,” Martin stated. “My team is the one that talked me out of it. I was up here [saying], ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s fight. Let’s fight.’ That was a conversation with my coaches. I was like, ‘I could do this fight, get this out of the way and I’m lined up right here. My manager and everybody else, they were like, ‘Hey, this is a world of an opportunity. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, that you fight for a world title. So we’re pulling out, you’re going back to camp and get this belt.’
“So I guess after a while I was thinking and it started to make sense. And I said, ‘Hey, whatever. Let’s just do it.’ Anything could happen. You could get cut or some head-butt or any kind of crazy stuff that could’ve pulled me out of this fight [against Glazkov]. But I guarantee I was going to knock Dom out. That was just automatic. We know each other. I would’ve knocked him out for sure. Dominic Breazeale, I would’ve knocked him out.”
Breazeale, meanwhile, has since been scheduled to meet Amir Mansour (22-1-1, 16 KOs) in a 10-round fight on the Danny Garcia-Robert Guererro undercard Jan. 23 at Staples Center in Los Angeles (FOX).
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
