With A Spectacular KO, Kiko Martinez Joins the Short List of Best Boxers from Spain

Francisco “Kiko” Martinez added the most unlikely chapter to his noteworthy career this past weekend with a sixth-round stoppage of Kid Galahad on Galahad’s turf in Sheffield, England. Martinez sheared away Galahad’s IBF world featherweight title with a highlight reel two-punch knockout interrupted by a 60-second intermission.

No doubt many in the audience weren’t paying attention when Martinez delivered his first crusher, a punch that landed with less than 15 seconds remaining in the fifth stanza. To that point, it had been all-Galahad. The Englishman, befitting the odds, was seemingly on his way to pitching a shutout assuming that the cut over Martinez’s right eye didn’t worsen to the point where the ring doctor waived it off. A one-sided fight, especially when neither man is noted as a big puncher, doesn’t lend itself to paying rapt attention.

Then boom. The blow that Martinez struck in the waning seconds of round five, a sweeping right hand, knocked Galahad off his pins and left him on queer street, to invoke an old boxing expression. The fog didn’t lift during the 60-second respite and Martinez applied the finishing touch with the very next punch that he launched, another right hand, this one with a straighter trajectory. It knocked Galahad flat on his back, out cold.

In the aftermath, boxing pundits wondered whether the KO would be memorialized as the Knockout of the Year. Beyond that, some ventured the opinion that the 35-year-old globetrotter had just stamped himself the best-ever boxer from Spain.

It’s a fair question. Javier Castillejo is widely considered the best Spanish boxer of all time. The similarities between Castillejo and Kiko Martinez are striking.

Castillejo came up short in his first crack at a world title, losing a 12-round decision to WBA super welterweight champion Julio Cesar Vasquez. Six years later, in his forty-eighth pro fight, he won the WBC version of that title, out-pointing Keith Mullings.

After five successful defenses, Castillejo lost the belt in Las Vegas to a much classier fighter, Oscar De La Hoya, who won a comfortable 12-round decision. Castillejo was then 33 years old and although he rebounded with a string of nice wins against fellow Europeans, it was presumed that his best days were behind him. Indeed, he would be dismissed as a has-been after losing a 10-round decision to Fernando Vargas on his next visit to the United States in 2005 and few would accord him much of a chance when he opposed Germany’s Felix Sturm the following year in Hamburg. Undefeated save for a controversial loss to De La Hoya, Sturm, the younger man by 11 years, would be making the first defense of his WBA middleweight title.

In one of the biggest upsets of the year, the long-in-the-tooth Spanish invader became a world title-holder in a second weight class. Trailing by 4, 4, and 6 points on the scorecards, Castillejo stopped Sturm in the 10^th.

Heading into this past weekend, Kiko Martinez, akin to Javier Castillejo in 2006, was looked upon as a fighter who had devolved into a journeyman and was now trading on his name recognition to secure a few more good paydays in the twilight of his career. And like Castillejo, he confounded the experts, scoring a huge upset in a hostile setting to win a world title in a second weight class.

More than likely, there will be rematch. And if history is any guide, a bet on Kid Galahad, the would-be-avenger, will likely pay dividends.

Javier Castillejo and Felix Sturm hooked up again in 2007. As in the first fight, Castillejo was the aggressor, but Sturm stayed out of harm’s way and won a fair decision. Castillejo had only three more fights, leaving the sport with a record of 62-8-1, 43 KOs. (Felix Sturm, by the way, is still active.)

With his spectacular showing on Saturday, Kiko Martinez improved his ledger to 43-10-2 (30). All ten of his losses have come on the road. He’s never been a great fighter, not by the standards of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, but he’s always been a fan-friendly fighter and if one were to submit that he’s the all-time best fighter from Spain, there would be no argument from this quarter.

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