Charles Martin was rewarded for remaining in the gym earlier this year because that training gave him the confidence to take a difficult fight with Jared Anderson on short notice. (photo by Ryan Hafey)
The former IBF heavyweight champion doesn’t have a fight scheduled, but he is training in Las Vegas again because Martin understands that another call could come for a significant fight without much notice. The strong southpaw has been sparring against Joe Joyce to help the big British contender prepare for his immediate rematch with Chinese southpaw Zhilei Zhang on September 23 in London.
After testing the undefeated Anderson on July 1, the 37-year-old Martin hopes to land another high-profile assignment as soon as possible.
“I would like to fight Wilder, Parker, Ruiz – any former heavyweight champion – or in any high-profile fight,” Martin told BoxingScene.com. “I believe in myself. I’ll fight anyone, and I can beat anyone. Like I said, I just wanna fight as soon as possible. Heavyweights today are bitches! They don’t wanna fight anyone. Boxing fans deserve better.”
Representatives for Deontay Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KOs) are in negotiations to finally fight another former heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua (26-3, 23 KOs), early next year in Saudi Arabia. The former WBC champ from Tuscaloosa, Alabama was supposed to fight Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs), but Wilder has accused Ruiz of pricing himself out of an elimination match that the WBC ordered.
While Wilder is engaged in talks to fight Joshua, neither New Zealand’s Parker (32-3, 22 KOs), a former WBO champ, nor Ruiz, a former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champ from Imperial, California, have fights scheduled.
Martin (29-4-1, 26 KOs) replaced Anderson’s original opponent, Kazakhstan’s Zhan Kossobutskiy (19-0, 18 KOs), on only 11 days’ notice because Kossobutskiy couldn’t secure a visa in time to travel to the United States for his fight against Anderson.
The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Martin got up from a knockdown late in the third round of a main event ESPN televised from Huntington Center in Anderson’s hometown of Toledo, Ohio. The St. Louis native later buzzed Anderson with left hands just after the midway mark of the fifth round and again a few seconds prior to the final bell sounding in the 10th round.
The 6-foot-4, 243-pound Anderson (15-0, 14 KOs) otherwise controlled the action and won comfortably on all three scorecards (99-90, 99-90, 99-91).
Despite Anderson’s wide win on the scorecards, testing the young, strong contender rejuvenated Martin, who wants to continue challenging himself during the twilight of his career.
“Right now, nothing is scheduled for me,” Martin said. “I do have two offers, but the names aren’t as big as I want. But I’m back at the gym, just in case something pops off, while helping my guy Joe Joyce get ready for Zhang. Joe is looking big and strong and it’s gonna be a great fight.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.