By: Sean Crose
It looked like it was shaping up to be a pretty good fight. WBC featherweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez may have been the favored walking in to face the largely unknown Samuel Carmona, but the undefeated former Olympian had clearly travelled to Glendale, Arizona to win. Although Martinez was originally supposed to be fighting a rematch with McWilliams Arroyo, Carmona was proving to be more than an adequate replacement (McWilliams was prevented from fighting due to an injury).
Carbona landed well and was able to keep Martinez from getting his timing down throughout the first part of the bout. By the midway point of the scheduled twelve rounder, it looked like perhaps an upset might be in the air. Then something happened. It appeared in fact to be an injury to Carbona’s right hand. Needless to say, the Spaniard had to spend much of the second half of the match fighting one handed – if only he was fighting. Without the right, all of Carbona’s impressive footwork began to look a lot like running. Martinez was able to capitalize on the moment, at least somewhat. The question after the final bell was whether or not either man had done enough to win.
Needless to say, Martinez won by scores of 114-114, 117-11, 116-112. Although one judge ruled the fight a draw, the other two had Martinez winning comfortably. It was worth wondering how things would have turned out had Carbona not been injured.