Boxing
Charles Martin on "The Revenge Tour" with Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder in his crosshairs
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At the beginning of 2016, Charles Martin was on top of the boxing world.
He'd just achieved his lifelong dream that January when he stopped Vyacheslav Glazkov in the third round to capture the vacant IBF heavyweight title. Up next would be a trip to England to faceoff with Anthony Joshua. But, unfortunately, things didn't go Martin's way on that fateful April evening across the pound as Joshua knocked him out in the second round to end the American's three-month title reign.
Instead of sulking, Martin dug down deep and has won five of his last six, with the sole loss coming in a narrow decision loss to Adam Kownacki in September 2018 that could have gone either way. This run has vaulted Martin back into the thick of things in a loaded heavyweight division as he headlines on Saturday against former two-time heavyweight title challenger Luis Ortiz. When asked about the most significant difference in himself from the Joshua fight to this upcoming contest on New Year's Day, Martin (28-2-1, 25 KOs) starts not wanting to talk about it to opening up a little bit about his feelings towards the former two-time unified heavyweight champion and what he plans on doing about it.
"I don't really like to talk about that too much," Martin admits to DAZN News. "It just wasn't a fair shake overall. Even Joshua knows that. You think he’s in anybody else's DM that he defeated? Nah, man. He knows. But we don't want to talk about that. The difference is I got a lot more focus. I got a lot more discipline. I'm in the greatest shape I've ever been in my life. I'm more mature, and I'm in my prime right now. That's the funny thing about this game. We all come up, we all rise, and we all fall. At this point in my career, I'm better than Joshua. Ain’t no doubt about it. He softened up. I'm ready. Let's go. I'm gonna get my fight and my revenge. I call this “The Revenge Tour”.
Looking at it, you might wonder, who's on "The Revenge Tour" hitlist? Martin didn't hesitate with his response.
"Ortiz's on this revenge tour. Then we got Joshua, we got (Tyson) Fury, and we got Wilder," Martin said bluntly.
Martin admitted he was in training camp to face Wilder earlier this year until an arbitrator ruled the latter was contractually owed a third fight with Fury. Currently, Fury is obligated for a mandatory WBC title defense with Dillian Whyte. At the same time, Joshua and unified champion Oleksandr Usykl are scheduled to meet sometime in 2022, and Wilder is without an opponent as he's recovering from his "Fight of the Year" with Fury back in October. Starting with Ortiz, Martin has a plan in mind if the situation plays out the way he'd like it to.
"In the perfect world for me, I would love to get Joshua for sure," Martin said. "I want two fights with him. The first one don't even have to be in America. It could be wherever he wants it to be. Then the second one will be out here in my backyard. I want to spank that a— two times back-to-back just so he knows because before we leave this earth, you got to know (that) you (are) not a badder man than Charles Martin. I came from the real slums. It's a whole lot different over here. I had a fight every day. I used to hate fighting. I'm not a fighter. But that s— is put in me. It was instilled in me just by the way I grew up, where I grew up at. So I just want to prove that to him. You're not a bad motherf—. You're not. You're not bad like that, brother."
