The win gave Warrington the IBF featherweight championship back after he vacated in 2021 and placed Warrington back in the divisional spotlight.
Warrington cut Martinez over both eyes and on the bridge of the nose with an aggressive assault in the first two rounds before settling and boxing an increasingly desperate Martinez, who continued to try to find the miracle bomb that won him the title from Kid Galahad.
I had Warrington ahead 59-54 after six rounds and after the fight, it seemed that promoter Eddie Hearn was ready to pit Warrington against WBA minor titleist Leigh Wood, who attended the card, even though Wood is supposed to face WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz for the consolidated WBA championship.
However,Warrington's father (and trainer) indicated that Warrington would prefer to face Santa Cruz next so things were in flux until it was discovered that Warrington had broken his jaw during the fight.
That makes Santa Cruz-Wood more likely ( as now Warrington will need time to heal) as the WBA has mandated that fight next with no exceptions, although I'll believe Santa Cruz fights again at 126 pounds when someone is singing the national anthems before the fight.
In Minneapolis from Showtime/PBC, undefeated top junior middleweight contender Tim Tszyu survived a first round flash knockdown to win a closer than I scored unanimous decision over Terrell Gausha.
Tszyu wasn't in serious trouble following the knockdown and starting in the second round, Tszyu began exert his strength and held Gausha at bay against the ropes for most of the remainder of the fight.
Tszyu hurt Gausha in the fourth and fifth rounds and once in (I think) the fourth, Tsyzu's right hand sent Gausha sprawling into the ropes and the referee could have called a knockdown with the ropes holding Gausha up.
The scores were closer than my 117-110 card for Tszyu with a 116-111, 115-113 and a really bad 114-113 official scoring.
Gausha did land far more right hands than you would like to see Tszyu get hit with and Gausha showed lots of heart making it to the end of the fight, so the fight was fairly entertaining but Tszyu still has questions to answer whenever he receives his title shot against either Jermell Charlo or Brian Castano and Gausha appears to be settling in as a gatekeeper of the division.
In the co-feature lightweight Michel Rivera won a unanimous decision over Joseph Adorno in a fight that I have yet to watch.
On ESPN from Las Vegas, former WBC junior lightweight champion Miguel Berchelt might be finished as a top fighter after his lightweight debut saw Jeremiah Nakathila defeat Berchelt when the fight was stopped between the sixth and seventh rounds.
Berchelt fought very tentatively in an attempt to more of boxer than the slugger that defended his title six times before taking a pounding in his tenth round knockout loss to Oscar Valdez.
Nakathila dropped Berchelt with a jab in the third round and generally dominated the fight until the fifth when Berchelt stepped up the pace and landed some good right hands to win the only round he would win all evening.
Nakathila landed a booming right hand that sent Berchelt's gumsheild flying across the ring which saved Berchelt as the time that was taken to clean the mouthpiece allowed a shaken Berchelt some badly needed time and he barely survived the round but the fight was stopped before the start of the seventh in a very good move.
I had Nakathila ahead 59-54 at the time of the stoppage.
Nakathila will stay around in the future at lightweight and I wouldn't be surprised if he was selected to eventually be the comeback opponent for Vasyl Lomachenko when the Ukrainian star returns to the ring after the end of the Russian invasion of his country.
As for Berchelt, his legs are gone and he seems to be reluctant to use the aggressive style that gave him success because he is afraid to take the chance of getting cracked in return.
If Berchelt was my fighter, I'd suggest he consider hanging the gloves up because if he's not willing to engage and use his strengths, I see no chance of turning his career around.
Boxing challenge
TRS: 44 Pts (5)
Vince Samano: 43 Pts (5)
Ramon Malpica: 38 Pts (3)
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