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Tomas Villa of Midland, Texas brought a modest won-lost record into his match-up with undefeated hot prospect David Martinez but left the ring at the Iseleta Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico wearing the black and gold NABA super bantamweight title belt. In the end it was the twenty-two-year-old’s iron will that brought Martinez down as Villa simply would not accept that he was expected to lose and instead battered the hometown fighter with an unrelenting two-handed assault that proved more than Martinez could handle. Texas featherweight titlist Villa, 12-5-3 (6), had proven his quality before this bout, having stung favored adversaries Mike Trejo and Edel Ruiz during the last fourteen months, and refused to let Martinez have a moment’s rest. Villa pressed the former WBC Youth super flyweight belt-holder, 13-1-1 (3), and outworked the starlet for the better part of almost every round.
When Martinez, who had to fight through the effects of a bad cut over his right eye, stuck to his stick and move game plan, it was clear he was the much higher skilled boxer and he caught Villa almost at will. Unfortunately for the twenty-two-year-old man, who calls both Albuquerque and Stockton, California home, he didn’t possess the stamina to continue with that strategy.
In a typical stanza, Martinez would wind down after first picking off Villa, then begin trading with the Mexican born hard man before simply shelling up and taking punches. Both men showed durability but after a bloody Martinez was taking a shellacking along the ropes in the tenth and final round, referee Rocky Burke stepped in and stopped the action.
Martinez was greatly upset but he was behind on all three cards and had barely thrown a punch during the tenth.
Official scorecards at the time of the stoppage was 88-83 (twice) and 87-84. SaddoBoxing scored the bout 86-84.
In other action Freddy Hernandez of Mexico City took Anthony Montoya’s WBA Fedelatin welterweight title away, largely on the strength of a crippling left hook to the liver at the end of the fourth round. While previously unbeaten, hometown hero Montoya, 8-1 (6), made it through the round, he was unable to answer the bell for the fifth and a jubilant Hernandez, 18-1 (15), was declared the winner.
Contact Curtis McCormick at thomaspointrd@aol.com
