Española’s Antonio “Tone” Martinez had lost three out of his last four fights and two consecutively for the first time in his career, but he went ahead and made sure he didn’t tally his third.
Martinez (10-5-4) went toe-to-toe with Pablo Batres (9-17) for six rounds, but in the end, Martinez’s will to stay aggressive and follow the game plan helped him prevail for a unanimous decision (60-54, 59-55, 58-56) victory Jan. 26 during Holmes Boxing’s Cold War 5 inside the Tewa Grand Ballroom at Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino.
Coming into the fight, promoter and Martinez’s trainer Pat Holmes said success would lie in Martinez’s ability to stay on the attack and keep the action near the middle of the ring. Holmes believed Martinez was capable at connecting more punches and landing what he called the “more meaningful shots.”
Martinez didn’t disappoint and gained early momentum by getting his jab going and as the fight progressed toward the later rounds, Martinez racked up the head and body combinations to outwork Batres.
“It was the hurt game,” Holmes said. “Tone landed the more meaningful shots and you could see that. You look at all the hard body shots and head shots and that’s where the scoring came from. It’s a hurt game and Tone did that tonight.”
Martinez had been complacent at following the game plan at times during his previous two losses, and although he said it still could have been followed better against Batres, he was just happy he was able to let his hands go, but this time, controllably.
“I let my hands go and I threw a lot of punches,” Martinez said. “I was busy, but this guy just had a chin on him. I hit him with the big shots, and he took them. He (Holmes) drilled it in my head all camp to keep busy and let my hands go. If I didn’t do that, I was gonna lose this fight.”
While it was evident that Martinez was more consistent at landing those meaningful shots, he was thankful he gained an extra edge from the crowd, who contributed to the 20th consecutive sellout for a Holmes Boxing event at Buffalo Thunder.
“I have the best fans here in Española and all of Northern New Mexico and they made the difference,” Martinez said. “I can’t thank them enough. To be here supporting after I took two Ls, and they gave me the advantage, honestly.”
Got weight?
One match prior was dubbed a super flyweight bout with Cordova’s Leanna Martinez and Las Cruces’ Amy Salinas, but the fight was anything but advertised.
Weighing in at 112.7 pounds was Leanna Martinez, but Salinas – who was making her pro debut after a 73-8 amateur mark – strolled into Buffalo Thunder for Jan. 25’s weigh-in and totaled 123.7 pounds on the scale. Her weight rose to 127 on the second weigh-in on Jan. 26 and Holmes said she was probably closer to 133 by fight time. In her defense, Salinas was added to the card just six days prior and was the sixth different scheduled opponent for the fight.
On paper, it was an 11-pound advantage for the 18-year-old Salinas, but in all reality, Leanna Martinez was fighting at a near 20-pound disadvantage, or a four-weight class difference, as Salinas neared the limits of a lightweight (135 pounds).
The differential wasn’t hard to spot for anyone present in the Ballroom once the fight began, and Salinas took advantage from the onset, powering her way through the previously undefeated Leanna Martinez (3-1) to snag a unanimous decision (60-54, 60-54, 59-55) win.
“It came down to that she was four divisions heavier,” Leanna Martinez said. “She’s a national champion, but the weight difference got the best of me.”
After the first round was dominated by Salinas, Leanna Martinez countered in the second round in what was probably the one of six rounds she could have scored a slight advantage with the judges.
Salinas took note and answered the next two rounds to steal back the momentum, and it was her combination of left hooks to the body and rights to the head that carried her the rest of the way. She opened the fourth round with five straight clean punches and never looked back from that point.
Leanna Martinez didn’t shy away from delivering several good right hands, but for every punch she landed, the bigger, hungrier Salinas countered with at least double the firepower.
“She was more used to the game than I am, so the mentality the whole fight was, ‘Go, go, go,” Salinas said. “Amateur to pro is a completely different game, so we knew we had to get going. She hit me once, but I had to comeback twice, three or even four times harder.”
Despite making her pro-debut, Salinas was the more experienced fighter with over 80 bouts to her name. She fought for the USA Boxing Youth Girls Championships in India in 2017 and was a two-time national champion and three-time ringside champion — all accomplished since she began fighting in 2008.
“I expected it to be harder and to get hit harder,” Salinas said about stepping into the pro ring. “It was completely different without the headgear because you usually don’t feel a lot of the things you do in professional. Your head feels a lot smaller though, and that’s a good thing.”
Leanna Martinez said there will be some positives to take away from the loss, but in hindsight, she felt the right move might have been to turn down the fight given the weight differential. Still, Holmes was satisfied and said he got a true depiction of what kind of fighter he has in his corner moving forward.
“Tonight gave us an early measuring stick of where Leanna is really at,” he said. “To go that distance and to go six (rounds) like that, that was a victory in itself. In a business decision we could have said, ‘Hey, let’s not fight this fight,’ but, Leanna had a crowd ready to see her, she trained all camp and she still fought well enough to make them proud.”