Martinez confident of victory against Nicky Cook!

[DG.]

Martinez confident of victory!

By Lee Bates

Fightnews caught up with Ramon ‘Rocky’ Martinez (21-0-1, 12 KOs) just days away from his challenge of WBO world champion Nicky Cook (29-1, 16 KOs). Martinez spoke on fighting in Cook’s native England, who has the power edge between he and Cook, and the importance of joining Puerto Rico’s large list of world champions. The bout can be seen on Saturday’s PPV card headlined by Amir Khan versus “The Baby Faced Assassin” Marco Antonio Barrera, live from The M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, United Kingdom.
Photo: PR Best

Photo: PR Best

How different will this be for you fighting in England where generally you fight in front of large crowds in Puerto Rico who come out to support you in your fights there?

It’s definitely going to be different but It wont be a problem. All my focus will be inside the ring on Cook.

Fighting in his home country are you feeling pressured to knock Cook out?

If the knockout presents itself then I would take it of course but I’m conditioned to go 12 hard rounds if necessary.

Outside of England and other parts of Europe many people haven’t really seen Cook in action. How would you describe his style?

He’s a very solid technical fighter with good power and he takes a good punch.

Having seen videos of Cook do you feel he is the stronger fighter between you two?

He appears to be strong on the videos I’ve seen but whether he is stronger than I am remains to be seen until we fight.

With Puerto Rico producing so many world champions over the years, how important is it for you to join that list?

It extremely important for me to join that list and my current world champion stablemates as well. I’ve been waiting along time for this opportunity and have trained extremely hard. I have no doubts that I will return to Puerto Rico as a world champion.

[Bard of Boxrec]

interesting fight this one. I take it this was forced upon Team Cook by the WBO as surely being fed to the wolves this early was not the order of the day? Having said this I haven't seen Martinez but everyone is making him favourite...

[Hagler2002]

interesting fight this one. I take it this was forced upon Team Cook by the WBO as surely being fed to the wolves this early was not the order of the day? Having said this I haven't seen Martinez but everyone is making him favourite...

Setanta showed him against Santos Benavides on the Calderon-Cazares undercard, he looked pretty useful.