Boxing: A true grudge match is possible
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As much as boxing fans are subjected to fight promotions touting contrived hatred between opponents, there is one possible future date that would give us a bout dripping with bitterness and ill will.
In an article I wrote in today’s Times on boxer cousins Marshall Martinez and Steven Luevano, Martinez details how he believes a four-year prison term for conspiracy to distribute cocaine reformed him and leaves him focused to accomplish the professional boxing goals he blew as a dangerous youth.
Martinez confesses the cocaine scheme was ‘my fault,’ but he remains angry at his codefendant in the case, former 2000 Olympic boxing teammate and silver medalist Ricardo Williams Jr. Martinez doesn’t like rehashing the details of their 2004 bust near Cincinnati but he said he believes it was an associate of Williams who tipped off law enforcement about the shipment of cocaine Martinez was supposed to pick up.
‘I have personal reasons I want to fight him,’ Martinez told The Times. ‘I have no respect for him. He knows what he did.’
While Fontana’s Martinez (7-0-1) is set to resume his career Nov. 1 in an undercard 140-pound fight at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Williams is already boxing again as a welterweight (147 pounds). Although Martinez said the plan is for him to ultimately contend for a lightweight title, he and Williams are both promoted by Gary Shaw, and Martinez has communicated his interest in fighting Williams.
‘I have no contact with the guy at all,’ Martinez said of Williams. ‘I don’t really ever want to see him again until we’re both stepping into the ring against each other.’
-- Lance Pugmire
