By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
Less than a week ago, Jesus Martinez was enjoying the cool weather of Guadalajara, Mexico, celebrating his first professional boxing victory.
Now, he’s home in Del Rio, where the weather is hot, the wind doesn’t bring relief but often times discomfort, and the training facilities are a mix of old school and new.
Martinez wouldn’t have it any other way.
Martinez, who is best known to boxing fans as “Panterita,” which translates to “Little Panther” in English, earned a unanimous decision win over Daniel Nuñez Gomez Friday night in the opening bout of the Matchroom Boxing series card on DAZN. While the prospects for a first round knockout were there, Martinez’s father, Jesus Martinez Jr., explained that his son going the distance – four rounds – helped show the different skills “Panterita” has and helped open the eyes of many who were unfamiliar with the 17-year-old who entered his pro debut with nearly 150 amateur fights under his belt.
For the younger Martinez the experience of his first professional fight was something he’ll never forget.
Martinez spent nearly two months in Riverside, Calif., with the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy, training under the direction of the former world champion Garcia and working with such established stars such as Jesse Rodriguez, the WBC super flyweight champion. He first worked with Garcia through his camp in San Antonio, so working with him again for his first pro fight was a no-brainer.
“Being around some of the world’s top fighters and trainers was an amazing experience. You can never learn enough when you’re around people like them. That’s one thing about boxing … you’re always learning,” Martinez said. “You’re always working to get smarter, get faster, get better.”
Leading into the fight Martinez admitted there was a lot going through his mind. He said there were a couple of sleepless nights as he wondered about different aspects of turning pro – how was it going to feel when he hit his opponent with eight-ounce gloves versus the more padded gloves he used in his amateur bouts; how was it going to feel taking that big punch without the head gear; what kind of performance was he going to put on?
“I always envisioned winning. I trusted my trainers because they prepared me for anything that could happen. I was just ready to go out there and win,” Martinez said.
Nuñez Gomez was a good fit for Martinez’s first opponent. Despite the 11-year age gap, Nuñez Gomez had only two professional fights and was coming off his first win. He wasn’t an overly dominant-looking fighter, but Martinez said he was solid and with his MMA background, chances were that he wouldn’t be an easy opponent but instead would be a fighter who could take the punishment and keep coming.
“I didn’t know much about him before the fight. There wasn’t much information on him out there, but when I was an amateur I didn’t know anything about the 70 to 80 percent of the guys I fought either. One of my strengths was being able to make adjustments in the ring, so I was ready,” Martinez said.
Despite training for weeks, being involved in press conferences and weigh-ins, and coming out to music and professional lighting and graphics, Martinez said the reality of fighting as a pro didn’t hit him until right before the fight started.
“It was literally five seconds before the bell. I glanced around and all of it just started going through my head,” Martinez said.
If Martinez was nervous, he didn’t show it. Less than a minute into the fight he stunned Nuñez Gomez with a big overhand right. A few moments later, a combination of jabs and straight rights sent Nuñez Gomez to the mat.
“I knew he was more mature and I knew he could take a punch. He was tough and rugged, but I managed to catch him with a right and that led to the slip. Then I threw the jab and another big right and caught him again. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my manager get excited and that really fired me up,” Martinez said.
Despite the unanimous win, Martinez said he was focused on learning from the fight and improving his skillset. He said the one thing he’s learned from his time in the sport is that there’s never time to be satisfied. There’s always room for improvement.
“I always want to improve. I never want to stop learning. You can give the best performance of your life and there will still be things you can be taught to be even better. You always should work to perfect your craft even more,” Martinez said.
Despite being more than 1,000 miles from home to train, and more than 750 miles away to box, Martinez said Del Rio was never far from his mind. He said he and his parents, Eunise and Jesus Martinez Jr., felt the love and support from their home community at every step of the journey to his first pro fight. That love continued after the fights with hundreds of calls and text messages congratulating them on his win.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect in my first pro fight, but it exceeded anything I could have anticipated. Guadalajara was beautiful … it felt like a dream, and it was a special night for a special debut,” Martinez said. “My parents were there with me and they’ve always supported me from the beginning of this journey. And even though we were far from home, we could still feel all of the support from Del Rio. That was super nice. People sent us photos of them watching the fight and grilling or going to places to watch the fight and we saw lots of great reactions from people who watched the fight. A lot of those people we didn’t even know. They called or texted to congratulate me and it was all just so super nice. I just want to thank everyone in Del Rio for all of that love and support. It meant the world to us.”
Martinez said he’s not sure when his next fight will be, but until then he’ll be training every day to get ready. He did take a few days off after the Guadalajara fight, but when he returned to Texas it was back to work. That meant working the body, going through recovery, and sweating it out under the Texas heat or in a small gym where that dream of turning pro first took shape. For Martinez, the idea of sweat now, succeed later is something he’s seen payoff firsthand.
“I don’t think I’m going to change the way I train just because my goals now are the same as when I first started – to become a multi-weight, multi-time world champion. I never wanted to be in the Olympics. I wanted to become a world champion,” Martinez said.
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Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
