22.04.04 – Carlos “Stiff-jab” Kalinchuk: Until January, Miguel “El Tapatio” Martin 17-1 was an undefeated Super-middleweight on his way toward big things. He was primed to potentially make some contractual moves with Golden Boy Promotions and he was looking at penetrating Ring Magazines middleweight ranks in the near future when the wheels came off the cart against Grady Brewer in an 8 rounder in Hidalgo Texas. Although Martin didn’t take a beating from all accounts, he was out-worked and appeared listless in the ring. Going into the fight, Martin did not follow his trainer Juan Lopezs’ instruction in preparing for the fight and he came in underweight and dehydrated. Not by Lopez, but drained and dehydrated because of his own doing the week before the fight.
“Because of my commitments at work, Miguel arrived earlier than I had for the fight. I told him we had done all the training and he just needed to watch his weight and the kid didn’t listen. He got to the Hotel and then went running a bunch of miles with a sweat bag on and he came in underweight and dehydrated and that’s exactly what happened. HE DIDN’T NEED TO DO THIS! I was so pissed off when I got there. I couldn’t believe it. The fight was contracted at 163 and when Brewer stepped on the scale, it said 160 1/2 and when Martin stepped on the scale, it didn’t even move. He could have easily been 159 or less!” said trainer Juan Lopez.
In the ring, Martin’s body betrayed his minds orders to throw and move and execute the game plan trainer Juan Lopez had designed for him. Martin’s dream began to resemble more of a nightmare as his scheduled 8 rounder with Brewer waned on. “I tried to move and do what I normally do, but I was dead. In fact, between Monday and Wednesday that week, I lost 14 lbs. I dried myself out and I had no electrolytes. Coach told me to fight at 163 and I told him, I WANT ANOTHER TITLE! I paid my price. I told him I WANT ANOTHER TITLE! I wanted to prove to myself that I can do whatever I want and it just doesn’t work that way. I don’t want to say that I’m glad I went through this, but I’ve always listened to coach and this experience has made me sit up and pay attention,” said Martin.
Having personally covered Martin’s career over the past year, I can personally attest that this is very plausible considering his work habits. No, Martin is no Michael Moorer who had to be lauded to train. On the contrary, Martin is the exact opposite. Lopez added, “I have told him over and over to not over train, but what are you going to do? You can keep telling them, but if they don’t listen, what can you do? I would tell him, don’t run today. Don’t do this and don’t do that, but he’s a grown man. I think that this has gotten his attention though. Ever since this happened, and I tell him to stop or not to run on his days off, he listens. This kid used to run over 10 miles on his days off! That’s how he hurt his knee once but I think this loss has taught him a lot but we’ll see. So far so good though.”
This fight should have been a competitive fight, but in reality it should have been more of a stepping stone performance for Martin. He lost by unanimous decision on all 3 scorecards, and in his mind, his world came tumbling down. “I thought I was going to feel some sort of rejection towards me for my performance, but I experienced the opposite. All my family, my family here in the Gym, everyone gave me a lot of emotional support. It’s makes me feel good and it made me realize a lot of things. I can’t go backwards to the past and I now must just look forward.”
He won’t have much time to look back though as Martin will again be featured on the HBO Latino under card on April 29 in Laredo Texas. “I’m happy. I’m working out. Every time I think of Grady Brewer, I take a deep breath and I don’t say anything. My time will come. The whole loss makes me feel like crap though. I’m not saying that Grady Brewer is a better fighter than me but I couldn’t even feel his punches. When I would train with Raul Marquez, I would try and move so I didn’t catch all his punches but with Brewer, I didn’t even move, I just stayed in the middle of the ring. I honestly didn’t feel his punches. They almost tickled. Getting hit by a 160 pounder is nothing compared to being hit by a Super Middleweight. He just outworked me. My mind was saying go here but my body was saying wait for me! (Laughs).”
After the defeat, Martin took some much-needed time off. He went to Mexico to visit his father and when he watches the fight on tape, he say’s “I can’t believe that was me! I looked aged and I look like shit! There is no justification in losing even though other Champions have lost before. I shouldn’t have been in such a rush. I’m 27 years old and I have the rest of my life ahead of me so I could have held off for another fight but I didn’t.”
When I asked him what lesson he learned from the loss, Martin said, “Take care of yourself. Listen to the man in your corner. Do what he tells you and coach who doesn’t expect anything in return. And I’m not saying this because he’s in front of me, I want to show not only the public but show him that I listened to him when I was working out. I want to make my corner proud by following directions, and to me he’s like my parent, and then I’ll will make him proud and everything will work out.”
As it goes, perhaps the loss to Brewer was not as much of a fluke as most initially thought. Not only did Brewer beat Martin, but he has since knocked out Anthony “The Messenger” Thompson. As most in boxing know, Thompson was thought of as the next big thing in the middleweight ranks; a future potential problem for Jermain Taylor and anyone else willing to lace up the leather. My have things changed!
In closing, for Martin, it was his first defeat in what has been a steady rise in the Middleweight Ranks. Even though NO one likes to lose, these things happen. To highlight an overused cliché, sometimes your own worst enemy is the reflection in the mirror. When you do the right things and good things happen, it can be said the same reflection is your best friend. The next time trainer Juan Lopez tells his study to call it quits on the training or not to run more than x miles, and Martin abides, we will know for sure if the loss resulted in development for Martin. From all indications, the lesson was learned. On the other hand, there is also a cliché that says a tiger doesn’t change his spots. My guess is that by the painful look on Miguel’s face throughout our interview, the lesson has been learned. Miguel “El Tapatio” Martin will have learned his lesson and he will go onto bigger and better things in his career. Other fighters have experienced defeat and so although an unbeaten record looks more impressive, it can also say other things as well. Things like inexperience and a padded record scream volumes with some fighters, however, based on where Brewer has done, no one is babying Martin, nor is he being thrown to the lions either. He will be featured on the 29th of April on (perhaps) the non-televised portion of the HBO Latino under card in a 6 or 8 rounder. Not bad for a fighter who had less than 10 Amateur fights. Martin is one of boxings’ good guys so lets hope he doesn’t have to taste defeat once more before the words of his corner weigh a ton instead of ounces.
Carlos “Stiff-jab” Kalinchuk
Contributing Writer and Photographer