By Mark Vester
Roman "Rocky" Martinez received a hero's welcome as he returned to Puerto Rico after a long flight from Manchester, where he capturing the WBO super featherweight title from Nicky Cook. Chants of "Rocky, Rocky" broke out as he boarded off the plane to a crowd of family, friends, fans and reporters. The unbeaten Martinez knocked out Cook in four rounds to become the 57th world champion to come out of Puerto Rico.
He received his new belt from fellow Puerto Rican champions, Juan Manuel Lopez (WBO at 122) and Ivan Calderon (WBO at 108).
"I am very pleased to be the 57th champion. This championship is for you [speaking to the crowd]. I had to dig deep with a great performance, but I'm here and plan to continue as the champion. What we want is for my first defense to be in Puerto Rico. I don't care about the opponent. I'll leave that to my promoters. I'm not afraid of any opponent," Martinez was quoted as saying by Primera Hora.
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