Results from London Where Kiko Martinez Turned Back the Clock Once Again

Kiko Martinez, a cat with nine lives, overcame a bad defeat to Josh Warrington in his previous bout and won a European belt for the fifth time with a rousing performance against England’s Jordan Gill tonight at Wembley Arena in London. Martinez beat Gill into submission inside four rounds.

The 36-year-old Spanish featherweight, a former two-time IBF world title-holder, seized control in the second round and had Gill on the canvas four times before the referee rescued the Englishman from further punishment as Gill’s chief second was poised to throw in the towel. The official time was 2:44 of round four.

Martinez improved to 44-11-2 with his 30^th knockout. The record is somewhat deceiving as Martinez has fought several of the top 122- and 127-pounders of his generation while answering the bell for 337 rounds. By any measure, he ranks among the top five fighters ever from Spain.

Jordan Gill, who fell to 27-2-1, was coming off a spectacular come-from-behind ninth round stoppage of Karim Guerfi and was favored over Martinez in the minus-270 range.

Gill vs Martinez was actually the co-feature. The main slot was reserved for Ireland’s real-life super-heroine Katie Taylor.

As expected, Taylor, the undisputed 135-pound champion, had too much class for her feather-fisted opponent Karen Elizabeth Carabajal who brought a 19-0 record forged entirely in her native Argentina.

Carabajal was game and there were no knockdowns, but the outcome was never in doubt. The judges had it 100-91, 99-91, and 98-92.

Taylor, 36, tentatively plans to have her next fight on her home soil. A rematch with Amanda Serrano in the spring of 2023 at Dublin’s 80,000-seat Croke Park would rank among the greatest spectacles in Ireland’s sporting history.

Other Bouts

A 10-round lightweight match between Ireland’s Gary Cully and French Moroccan campaigner Jaouad Belmehdi lasted all of 35 seconds. A short left hook from Cully knocked Belmehdi down hard. He managed to get to his feet but was all at sea and the bout was waived off.

This was the second straight impressive knockout by the undefeated (15-0, 9 KOs) Cully, a 6’2” southpaw who is trained by Pete Taylor, Katie’s dad, and was making his Matchroom debut. In his previous bout Cully stepped up in class and scored a fifth-round stoppage of Mexican spoiler Miguel Vazquez. It was the first pro loss for Belmehdi (16-1-3).

Johnny Fisher, a 23-year-old London heavyweight with a cult following, steamrolled Czechoslovakian slug Dominik Musil to advance his record to 7-0 (6). Fisher, nicknamed the Romford Bull, hurt Musil with the first serious punch that he threw and had him on the deck twice before the mismatch was terminated at the 2:03 mark of the opening stanza. Musil entered the bout with a 7-4 record, but those seven wins came against opponents who were collectively 27-253-14.

Also, Ellie Scotney, a 24-year-old Londoner, won a regional super bantamweight title with a unanimous decision over Mary Romero (8-3), a 37-year-old Spaniard. The scores were 97-93, 97-94, and 96-94. This was the third straight 10-rounder for Scotney (6-0, 0 KOs) who signed with Matchroom coming out of the amateur ranks and is on the fast track to a world title fight.

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