By Mark Eisner: Undefeated lightweights Michel Rivera & Frank Martin meet in a 12-round battle in a WBA 135-lb title eliminator tonight in a PBC card on Showtime boxing at the Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. The event begins at 10:00 p.m. ET.
Boxing News 24 will give live updates for tonight’s Rivera vs. Martin card below.
In the chief support bout, former IBF super middleweight champion Jose Uzcategui (32-4, 27 KO) hopes to put himself in line for a title shot against undisputed 168-lb champion Canelo Alvarez by defeating Vladimir Shishkin (13-0, 8 KO) tonight in their IBF title eliminator bout.
Full card:
Michel Rivera vs. Frank Martin
Jose Uzcategui vs. Vladimir Shishkin
Vincent Astrolabio (vs. Nikolai Potapov
Omar Juarez (vs. Austin Dulay
Elijah Garcia (vs. Cruse Stewart
“I think he’s very powerful and very skillful, and you’ll see what we’ve been working on,” said Frank Martin’s trainer Derrick James to K.O. Artist Sports.
“His last opponent [Jackson Marinez] was someone that Frank knocked out a year and a half ago. So, I think the guy wasn’t the same guy. Frank took a lot out of him. You kind of gauge it. The guy hit him a lot.
“That fight may be good for him, or it may be bad for him. I think he’s close,” said James when asked how close Martin is to getting a title shot, assuming he wins tonight against Rivera.
“Every fight is about getting more depth. In boxing, you can’t go backwards. You take a couple of more steps. It doesn’t matter. Fights in between, it doesn’t matter,” said James.
“I feel like they’re going to take notice, but they’re still going to try and play me under. They’re still going to keep me low,” said Frank Martin to Showtime Boxing about his prediction of how some boxing fans will treat him after he defeats Rivera tonight.
Martin’s career moving fast
“I’m going to get some love from it, but it’s not going to be crazy like jump. They’re still going to downplay me. When I moved up here, that’s when the ball started rolling fast with the step-up of opponents and everything.
“Me taking this fight at 16-0, already in a title eliminator is, it all happened so fast. That’s why I’m taking this fight. It’s a title eliminator, so it’s going to put me in that position [to challenge WBA lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis or undisputed champ Devin Haney].
“Tank has got his fights scheduled. Let’s say me and him were going to fight. That would push it until the end of the year. Devin has got his stuff going on. So I feel that title shot will come at the end of the year.
“Yeah, I feel like I’m ready. I’m ready for all of them. They put on their shoes like me. I’m there. That was before I started training with Derrick,” said Martin about him sparring with Tank Davis years ago.
“That was just me going on my natural [ability]. Now I’m slowing everything down. I know what to do. I have more experience. It just showed me that these guys aren’t off the radar. They ain’t doing nothing to you that you didn’t have happen to you. It wasn’t like.
“I didn’t go in there like, ‘This is Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.’ I didn’t get in the ring like that. That’s what a lot of people do. I got in there like he’s just another sparring partner. The sparring was solid.
“It was in Vegas in Floyd’s gym. There were around 40 people in the gym when it happened. Floyd was even there. It was live. It was loud. They weren’t hitting the ring or anything, but everyone was stuck kind of.
“I was a beast,” said Martin when asked what was the best compliment he received after sparring Gervonta. “They were like, ‘You looking like a beast.’
“Back then, I didn’t understand my defense. I wasn’t as fundamental. I was fighting more with the style that I’m comfortable with hands down.
“I didn’t have an understanding of basic fundamental boxing. Now I’ve got that fundamentally down now, defensively, countering, using my hands. Now I can put my finesse to it, and go back to my fundamentals. I know how to mix it all together.
“His training method,” said Martin when asked why Derrick James is such a successful coach. “He trains us the same, but different. “He’s going to train you off of what you’ve got. He’s going to make you train with the basics.
“Every fighter has something that they’re good at. So he’s going to peep what you’re good at, and then he’s going to try to get you better at it, and then add on certain stuff to it.
“We were working out a lot for this fight, but we were working out prior to. We were doing a lot of one-on-one, doing wind sprints late at night,” said Martin discussing his working out with his promoter Errol Spence for this fight with Rivera.
“I was driving, thinking about it, ‘I’m training with Errol Spence.’ We’re together, but it don’t never hit me.”
