In the second round of Jaysonet Martinez’s 2026 Central Pennsylvania Golden Gloves championship bout, he popped out a left double upper cut that dropped Abel Correa.
Correa got a standing eight, the first of two, and at the final bell Martinez got the win.
The quick combo, delivered a split second after the ref called “box” following a break, may or may not have put Martinez over the top for the judges. But coming off a first round of hard hits and combos that landed, the “Jinji Special” was more than well timed.
Martinez (36-12) trains at Jinji Boxing Club in Lancaster, with his father, coach Jinji Martinez and his mother, Jessica “Mrs. Coach” Martinez. It’s where he, along with the rest of the team at Jinji Boxing, learned the double uppercut, drilling it until the chance to use it presented itself.
Clearly, the work paid off. Martinez is the 143-pound Central Pennsylvania Golden Gloves champ in the open classification.
It’s not the first championship for Martinez. In 2022, he won the national Silver Gloves, boxing at 138 pounds in the junior division. He was nationally ranked in high school.
But as an 18-year-old open boxer, the opportunities and the stakes are higher.
His victory over Correa puts him in the regionals on April 11, where a win will land him in the ring at the state championships on April 25.
Martinez said it was “hard to let loose,” against Correa (18-7), a friend who trains at Lehigh Valley P4P Boxing Gym in Allentown.
“You gotta do what you gotta do,” Martinez said.
Martinez is one of three Lancaster open class boxers who won at the March 28 championship event at UNITE Central PA Boxing Club in Harrisburg.
They, along with the novice class boxers, head to the regionals at Must Fight Boxing Club in Upper Darby.
Each if they win has a chance at a state championship. Open class can go all the way to nationals.
Josiah Ortiz of Lancaster City Boxing Academy earned his shot by taking down Martine Tinoco of East Reading Boxing Club in a 154-pound bout.
Landing multi-punch combos and hard rights — including one straight up into Tinoco’s face just as the bell ended the second round — Ortiz was clearly confident.
So confident that the clang of the third round’s opening bell was followed by the loud clap of Ortiz slapping his own gloves together.
He sprang out of the corner and three minutes later returned there to cheers, before stepping into center ring and being declared the victor.
“I never come to lose,” Ortiz said.
Teammate Jerimiah “Drip” Munoz (48-20) also brought home a win, though, like his first fight in the tournament, it wasn’t a pretty win.
In a 139-pound match that was a near brawl, Munoz faced Anthony Lebron (19-6) of Lehigh Valley. Munoz delivered a solid first round, landing a right hook that got an eight on Lebron.
But rounds two and three had both boxers on and between the ropes and in clinches as often as exchanging combos.
In round two, referee Delilah Matos separated the athletes and spoke to them — apparently to no avail. In the final round, she called Munoz for holding and he lost a point.
Despite that, he got the win and the championship.
Like Martinez, Munoz and Ortiz were nationally ranked when they were younger. But as elite boxers, USA Boxing’s division for athletes who have more than 10 fights and are between 18 and 40 years old, the competition is tougher.
In the 2025 USA Boxing National Championships, Munoz and Ortiz won their first fights, but didn’t advance beyond that.
In the Pennsylvania Golden Gloves, novice boxers (18 years or older and fewer than 10 fights) also advance to regionals.
‘A great fight’
Representing Lancaster this year will be super heavyweight Malik Bergman (1-4), who pulled off his first win and first championship via RSC on March 14.
Abdullah Nassif (6-3) also got his first championship win at the March 28 event, fighting as a 132-pound novice.
“Feels great,” Nassif said.
The win came from years of work, he said.
“My jab,” Nassif said, “strength and being with coach (Jinji Martinez).”
Bergman also trains at Jinji Boxing.
Earlier on the card, Lancaster boxers put on quite a performance.
Ground Zero Boxing Club’s Ny’ile Ford, 15, and Mellott Boxing Club’s Thomas Rodriguez, 15, have sparred in the past.
At the championships, they squared off at 145 pounds. After three solid rounds, Ford’s jab won out.
Rodriguez (10-7) said he had trouble getting inside, while Ford (9-3) said it was the third round, where he kept up, and landed jab after jab, that earned him the championship.
“Overall, it was a great fight,” coach Mike Murry of Mellott Boxing said.
He also praised Ford’s performance. “He came ready — had a nice jab to him,” Murry said.
Benchmark Program, Boxing Division’s twin brothers, Anaken Ferrer-Riccardi (2-1) and Alfred Ferrer-Riccardi (1-0) fought in back-to-back bouts and came home with mixed results.
Anaken Ferrer-Riccardi lost to Jayden Ortiz of Showstoppers Boxing Gym, while Alfred Ferrer-Riccardi debuted and won — after 10 seconds in the ring.
The referee stopped the contest due to injury when Devin Yang of 5 Stones Boxing Club threw out a left jab and apparently dislocated his shoulder.
“All champions step in the ring,” a Showstopper’s coach said after the bout between 14-year-old Quavon Rivers (0-1) of Showstoppers and Carlos Zaragoza, 13, of Mellott Boxing.
It was Zaragoza (1-1), however, who stepped out of the ring with a championship.
The 110-pound match was the first on the card and was Rivers’ debut.
To the spectator’s shouts of “Let’s go red!” (Zaragoza) and “Let’s go blue!” (Rivers), the two put on a show worthy of the championship card.
“Both did great,” coach Buddy Mellott, co-organizer of the Central Pennsylvania Golden Gloves, said. “Showstoppers is a great gym, raising great kids. We’re happy to share a ring with them.
“It’s my first, but definitely not my last,” Zaragoza, who attends Reynolds Middle School, said of his championship.
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