It\u2019s easy for young athletes to become conceited and arrogant, especially with as much success as Reading\u2019s Eric Martinez has had in his amateur boxing career.<\/p>\n
But the 20-year-old boxer is the complete opposite, thanks to the way he was raised and the people he surrounds himself with.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn boxing, they come, and they go,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cOne day you could be at the highest, and the next day at the lowest. I stay humble because you never know what\u2019s going to happen. That\u2019s something my mom always instilled in me, to stay humble and let the work speak for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez, a longtime member of Star City Boxing on Centre Avenue in Reading, has stayed humble throughout his 14-year amateur boxing career, never getting too high or too low.<\/p>\n
He holds a record of 100\u201321, including 21 knockouts, but those accomplishments will soon take a backseat as Martinez takes the next step in his career, making his professional debut on April 3 in Allentown.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a mix of everything. It\u2019s excitement, anxious, and nervous, but I think I\u2019m more excited than anything right now,\u201d Martinez said a couple of months out from his fight. \u201cI\u2019m just embracing the moment. Since it\u2019s my first fight, it\u2019s something new to me. I\u2019m just excited. My team\u2019s been on my side the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez has a strong support system at Star City, a team he considers family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more than boxing, this is family,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI was just talking to my mom about that, too. I see them every day, so they\u2019re basically family. We all push each other. Max (Baez) and I have been training together since we were little kids. Everybody just comes in here and tries to make each other better. Nobody has an ego. Nobody feels like they\u2019re higher than anybody else. We all just push each other to be the best we could be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Owner Alex Betances and coach Lindsay Bates have created that kind of environment at Star City, hoping all their young boxers can adopt a bit of Martinez\u2019s mindset and attitude, not just in boxing, but in life in general.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, I\u2019m super proud. He\u2019s a good kid and has an amazing mother and family,\u201d Bates said of Martinez. \u201cIt literally starts with his mom, she\u2019s very polite, respectful, and humble. He could be very arrogant, because he has it like that. But he\u2019s humble, well-spoken, and a team player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez\u2019s mother, Erica Ocasio, echoed the same sentiment as she prepares to watch her son turn pro.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super proud of him because he really pushes himself,\u201d Ocasio said. \u201cSometimes he amazes me, because there were times he was tired of it, but his love of boxing and his discipline kept him going. That\u2019s when I realized, \u2018There\u2019s nothing I could do to make him turn back,\u2019 and all I could do was support him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez\u2019s uncle and coach, Jose Espada, added, \u201cHe comes from a boxing family, but no one has reached the amateur ranks the way he did. He has the talent, work ethic, and a great team behind him to become a world champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez has envisioned this moment for a long time, and now the realization of that dream is finally beginning.<\/p>\n
His training regimen has intensified over the past month as the fight came together. Currently, he\u2019s doing two-a-day sessions in the gym, with Tuesdays and Thursdays dedicated specifically to strength and conditioning.<\/p>\n
While the grind for Martinez and his team at Star City has slowly picked up ahead of his big debut, he still does not know who he\u2019ll be facing in the ring in Allentown.<\/p>\n
However, Martinez and Coach Bates aren\u2019t worried, as he\u2019ll be ready to go regardless of who stands in the opposite corner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something the amateurs kind of built me for. Going to national tournaments, you don\u2019t really know who\u2019s going to be in front of you,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cThe amateur experience definitely helped me prepare for this moment, so whoever it is, we\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez, a state and national champion at the amateur level, is ready for what\u2019s ahead, with hopes of a long and successful professional career.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis IQ is very high, because anytime you have 100 wins and 20 losses, you\u2019ve seen a lot of different styles, and that\u2019s what Eric\u2019s good at: he adjusts,\u201d Bates said. \u201cNo matter who the opponent is, we have to be in this gym. Rain, sleet, or snow, the mindset is that you\u2019re in the trenches.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s easy for young athletes to become conceited and arrogant, especially with as much success as Reading\u2019s Eric…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,305,28,128,130,129,726,706],"class_list":["post-102407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-high-school-sports","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}