31.05.06 – Bernard Dunne has been told to prepare for the first defeat of his career at the National Stadium on Saturday night. The stark warning comes from Lenny Fresquez who promotes Dunne’s opponent this weekend – David Martinez. Fresquez has worked with five world champions including Floyd Mayweather Jr. the man widely recognised as the best pound for pound fighter in the world..
The Albuquerque native said, “I’ve been in this business a long time and I know talent when I see it. My kid has the talent to go a long way in the sport.”
However Fresquez has certainly not been impressed by what he’s seen of Dunne. “We know who Dunne is and to be honest he’s nothing. He’s done nothing and never will do anything. If Dunne’s team think he can beat David they have made a big mistake. We are certainly not afraid of him and we are not afraid of coming to Dublin to fight him.”
“Dunne’s been fighting bums and old men. His team has done a great job babysitting him up until now so I’m amazed that they have made the mistake of putting him in with Martinez. My guy is young and hungry – he’s not an old man and he’s not a bum.”
Despite Fresquez’s bravado it should be noted that it is Dunne who has the perfect record while Martinez has a solitary defeat on his career log. In July of last year Martinez lost out in a challenge for the North American super bantamweight title when he was stopped in the tenth round of a bloody battle with Tomas Villa. He’s bounced back from that loss with back to back wins and Fresquez says he’s learned from the defeat.
“David has tremendous boxing ability and that’s his main strength,” claimed Fresquez. “The Villa fight should have been an easy one for David but he got sucked in by trying to please the crowd and got into a fight. If he had used his boxing skills he’d have beaten Villa easily.”
The promoter is confident that Martinez can get past Dunne and go on to become the sixth world champion he has worked with. “I’ve seen Dunne fight live in New Mexico and also on tape and he is nothing special. I don’t see anything there to worry David at all. In fact besides David I promote two other guys at super bantamweight right now and they would both wipe the floor with Dunne too.”
Dunne – Martinez headlines another big night of boxing at the National Stadium on Saturday night. The full line up is as follows:
Bernard Dunne V David Martinez
Jim Rock V Lee Murtagh – Vacant Irish Middleweight Title
Oisin Fagan V Jeff Thomas – Vacant Irish Light Welterweight Title
Paul Griffin V Wladimir Borov
James Moore V Salaheddine Sarhani
Andrew Murray V Tony Jourda
Andrew Wallace V To Be Confirmed
For tickets visit TicketMaster.ie or call 0818 719300.