By Ben Jacobs

Some fighters may be understandably apprehensive at the thought of travelling abroad to fight for a world title in the hometown of their opponent, but that thought process can't be attributed to Kiko Martínez who is more than accustomed to just that. Martínez once again takes to the road when he faces Scott Quigg on July 18 for the WBA regular super bantamweight crown and the Alicante native spoke to BoxingScene.com just after returning to Spain from the press conference to announce the fight.

"I'm really motivated for this, it's been a while since I've felt this motivated, it's brought back my will to be a world champion again.

"I was going to fight for the world title in Panama in a lower division but this fight really has me more excited because Scott Quigg is a great fighter and I like fighting in the UK. They have great fans and I just want to put on a great show there. It's almost my second home over there, I've had a lot of fights. I've wanted to win a world title in the UK and I'm going there to win."

Martínez had mentioned Quigg's name before in interviews with BoxingScene.com having seen some of the Bury man's fights. He is happy the two will finally meet in the ring and is set to analyze him in further depth as the fight gets closer.

"I'll be studying him from now until the fight. I have to study him a lot to see what he does best and what he does badly.

"I'm the best, hardest and strongest fighter that Scott Quigg will have faced in his career. He's never fought someone like me, I'm sure of it.

"I'm going to try to win by knockout as I'll be in his backyard. I don't think this fight will go the distance, one of us is going down. I think it'll be a war for both of us."

Kiko will head to Madrid next week to begin training for the bout alongside new trainer Antonio Matias.

"Pablo [Sarmiento] went back to Argentina and got married," he explained.

"He's training people over there but the distance made things difficult, it would have been difficult going there and back. We still talk a lot but he's far away and we each have our families."

Martínez also had a few choice words for WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz who has received much criticism from people in the industry for his lack of top quality opponents.

"I think Leo Santa Cruz is avoiding Frampton as he knows Frampton will beat him. I think Frampton is the best at 122lbs, even better than Rigondeaux. He's far superior to Santa Cruz and Leo is avoiding the best fighters. He's fighting with bantamweights and lower level fighters. He's not a world champion, not even close to it. I think when he fights a top fighter we'll see that. He avoids fights that the public want."