Talented Briton Andrew Selby lost out on the opportunity to fight Charlie Edwards for the WBC flyweight title after a five-round battle in Mexico.
Selby, who has fought just once in almost eighteen months, seemed to drop Martinez early on but it wasn’t scored a knockdown.
Martinez touched down with his glove, which referee Hector Afu didn’t see. The home fighter was then deducted a point in the third.
With the Welshman seemingly on top, things began to unravel soon after. A few solid head shots were followed up by a hellacious body shot in the fifth.
Getting to his feet, Selby wasn’t given the chance to recover by Afu. The wind had been taken out of the 30 year-old’s sails and he or his team didn’t complain.
Widely regarded as one of the UK’s brightest prospects when switching from amateur to pro in 2015, it’s been a tough ride for Selby.
Just twelve fights have followed in four years. That fact, coupled with outside of the ring problems, leave the Welshman at a firm crossroads in his career.
He must now decide how many weight divisions he needs to move up as Selby is clearly not as affective as he can be at 112 pounds.
Targetting the Edwards battle was clearly in his thinking when accepting a tough assignment to Mexico. Whilst it’s back to the drawing board for now.
At the very least, Selby has to move back to super-flyweight.
EDWARDS
For Martinez, a trip to London could be on the cards following what was a career-best victory.
‘El Rey’ had fought nobody of note until Selby came calling. Martinez, 24, now stands on the verge of challenging for the coveted green and gold belt.
Losing his pro debut, also in 2015, Martinez has since won fourteen on the bounce, scoring eleven KO’s in that run.
Halting Selby means no opponent has gone more than six rounds with Martinez since June 2017.
