{"id":146713,"date":"2025-09-16T06:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T06:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/146713\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T06:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T06:03:08","slug":"i-want-glory-just-like-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/146713\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I Want Glory Just Like Him’"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina \u2014 A proper sendoff before a war must include a massive show of support for the fighter tasked with the mission of defending the national colors, and Argentine sports fans have always been fond of such demonstrations of encouragement for their heroes.<\/p>\n

Fernando “Puma” Martinez<\/a>, having grown up in the shadows of the legendary Boca Juniors stadium in Buenos Aires, knows all about the kind of loud and raucous support for the local team that \u201cLa 12\u201d (Player No. 12, as Boca fans like to call themselves) give their 11-member team every week, and he wanted to get some of that mojo in an open training session at one of the city\u2019s biggest shopping malls.
With the help of his already growing popularity, and the presence of his very popular promoter and former champ Marcos \u201cChino\u201d Maidana, Martinez managed to capture the attention of thousands of fans at Abasto Shopping Mall on Monday for a short training session on a ring set up at one of the food courts, and he got his wish of getting their energy on his side before traveling to Las Vegas for the last leg of his training camp before his clash with Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez in Saudi Arabia on Nov. 22<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted them to know me a little bit more,\u201d said Martinez, 34, after a session that included a playful sparring session with his mentor Maidana and the help of his trainer Rodrigo Calabrese. \u201cI wanted to bring boxing to the people and let them know that they have a great champion and that Argentina will make history with this fight. I wanted to make them feel that an Argentine boxer can win several titles and break all records, just like Messi did in soccer. I am very happy for the love of all the people that came along. It\u2019s beautiful here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the glory, just like Messi. I want to get all the records just like him. We\u2019re getting ready to bring this victory to Argentina.\u201d<\/p>\n

The glory that Martinez talks about includes the potential of lifting three of the four major belts in the junior bantamweight division (one owned by Martinez, two by Rodriguez) as well as The Ring belt, now in the hands of Rodriguez<\/a> after his defeat of Juan Francisco Estrada in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be terribly emotional for me,\u201d said Martinez, discussing the possibility of grabbing a Ring belt that only five other Argentine fighters have been able to obtain. \u201cI grew up watching \u2018Rocky,\u2019 I always wanted that belt, and now that it is out there for me to grab makes me very happy. I know that the \u2018Puma\u2019 will roar there in Saudi Arabia and I will bring it home.”<\/p>\n

The roar of the crowd and the general happiness of the moment did very little to hide the pain that the entire Maidana team is still enduring after the untimely loss of Maidana Promotions matchmaker Gustavo “Pileta” Gomez Maidana<\/a>, who passed away recently and left the entire training camp in turmoil.<\/p>\n

A large banner bearing his name, and a T-shirt worn by Martinez invoking Pileta\u2019s memory dominated the landscape of the entire event, but he claims that he\u2019s only stronger after the whole ordeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a hard road,\u201d said an intensely emotional Martinez. \u201cGod puts things in our path that makes us stronger. I lost my dad, then lost a brother last year, and now a great friend and part of the team. This makes us stronger. When my dad died I wanted to leave everything behind. But my mom and my brother and my trainer lifted me up, and they told me I had to fulfill my dad\u2019s dream. And today, I fulfilled that dream but I am still dreaming too. Life goes on, and these things make us stronger because we know also that Pileta did the best he could for all of us and now we\u2019re fighting for him, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the inspiration of his friend\u2019s death already being a part of his training and his motivation for a fight that could place him among his country\u2019s top five fighters of all time, Martinez turned his attention to his foe to deliver a final and ominous message.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou haven\u2019t fought a fighter like me yet,\u201d said Martinez, looking at a camera at the urging of this writer. \u201cYou will be crashing against a wall. Be very careful up there in the ring.\u201d<\/p>\n

His analysis of Rodriguez\u2019s style, however, was much more respectful of the fellow champ\u2019s great accomplishments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be one of the toughest fights of my career. I know he has great punching power, but he is not as experienced as me. I am coming from several years as a professional and I just fought with two monsters in this category, two guys who were champions for a long time,\u201d said Martinez, in reference to his back-to-back wins over Jerwin Ancajas and Kazuto Ioka. \u201cI have the experience to run him over. I will punch him a lot and close his mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUENOS AIRES, Argentina \u2014 A proper sendoff before a war must include a massive show of support for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,2989,2983,2831,2988,2981,2984,2985,2986,2987,2982,1920,2993,2992,1913,2976,2977,2990,2978,2975,2994,2772,85,2991,2974,2980,2979],"class_list":["post-146713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-results","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-news","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}