Former IBF Heavyweight Champ Recuperating After Being Shot in L.A.

Former IBF Heavyweight Champ Recuperating – In a story first reported by the gossip site tmz.com, former IBF World heavyweight champion Charles Martin required surgery after taking a bullet in his forearm in a dispute with an unknown assailant in downtown Los Angeles at approximately 5 am on Tuesday morning, August 2.

There are a lot of missing pieces to this story. It appears that Martin and an unidentified friend had a confrontation with two armed men. They shot at him and missed, whereupon Martin chased them in his car only to crash into a utility pole. The assailants then returned and opened fire again with one of the bullets striking him in the forearm. Martin reportedly lost a copious amount of blood before police officers arrived on the scene and transported him to the hospital. There are no suspects and the true facts may never be known.

Charles Martin (23-1-1, 21 KOs) won the vacant IBF World title with a third round stoppage of Vyacheslav Glazkov of the Ukraine at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Jan. 16, 2016. The stoppage was dictated when Glazkov suffered a torn ACL, an injury thought to have occurred when their feet got tangled and he slipped awkwardly to the canvas. Many knowledgeable fans thought that the bout should have been declared a “no contest,” leaving the title vacant. Instead, Martin won a piece of the world heavyweight title without throwing a meaningful punch.

Martin would be exposed as a bogus champion in his very next fight. Anthony Joshua needed only 218 seconds to shear the crown from his head. Martin’s title reign lasted only 85 days.

Police interventions are no strangers to some members of Martin’s team. He is co-trained by Henry Tillman. As an amateur, Tillman defeated Mike Tyson at the Olympic Trials, cashing a ticket to the Los Angeles games where he won the gold medal in the heavyweight division. He locked horns with Tyson again in 1990 and was knocked out in the opening round. But the Olympic gold medalist is also remembered for his encounters with the criminal justice system.

Prior to taking up boxing, Henry Tillman served a 10-month sentence at a California youth facility for an armed robbery conviction. In 2001, he drew a six-year prison term, retroactive to 1996, for attempted murder and voluntary manslaughter. In 2004, he was sentenced to 37 months in a federal institution after being found in possession of six fake driver’s licenses, eight counterfeit credit cards, and 18 bad checks.

ESPN boxing writer Dan Rafael reports that the surgery on Charles Martin’s forearm was successful. He will presumably be able to resume his boxing career. Three other recent shooting victims were not as fortunate. Reigning WBC World 154-pound champion Vernon Forrest was murdered by a would-be robber in Atlanta in 2009. Former lineal cruiserweight champion O’Neil Bell suffered the same fate at the hands of would-be robbers in Atlanta in 2011. In 2012, former WBC World lightweight and WBO World super lightweight champion Hector Camacho was murdered in Bayamon, Puerto Rico in an apparent drug deal gone bad.

Former IBF Heavyweight Champ Recuperating