Luis Ortiz stopped former champion Charles Martin in the main event of FOX Sports PBC over the weekend.
In a back and forth battle that topped a five-fight all-heavyweight pay-per-view, Ortiz (33-2, 28 KOs) recovered from two knockdowns to earn the TKO over the former heavyweight titleholder Martin (28-3-1, 25 KOs). The fight got off to a hot start in round one, with Martin landing a bruising left hand to the side of Ortiz’s head that sent him down late in the frame.
“I was very focused during this fight,” said Ortiz. “I was never worried. My trainer just told me to keep working the jab and that’s what I was able to do.”
Martin was able to rise to his feet and looked to hold on with over two minutes left in the round, but Ortiz was relentless in his attack and eventually forced referee Frank Santore Jr. to wave off the bout 1:37 into round six. Despite trailing on all three scorecards coming into the final round, Ortiz landed an impressive 57 percent of his power punches in the fight, including 19 of 23 in round six, according to CompuBox.
In the co-main event, rising heavyweight star Frank “The Cuban Flash” Sanchez (20-0, 13 KOs) dominated Christian Hammer (26-9, 16 KOs) on his way to a unanimous decision victory after 10 rounds of action.
In a 10-round rematch, Jonnie Rice (15-6-1, 10 KOs) earned a unanimous decision over Michael Coffie (12-2, 9 KOs), following up on his upset victory in their first fight, when he stepped in as a late replacement to stop Coffie in July 2021.
The lineup also saw Turkish Olympian Ali Eren Demirezen (15-1, 12 KOs) score a career-best victory with an eighth-round stoppage of former title challenger Gerald “El Gallo Negro” Washington (20-5-1, 13 KOs).
The action packed pay-per-view opener saw five knockdowns in less than two rounds as Viktor Faust (9-0, 7 KOs) remained unbeaten via second-round TKO over a game Iago Kiladze (30-6, 11 KOs).
Preceding the pay-per-view, action on FOX was headlined by rising lightweight contender Frank Martin (15-0, 11 KOs) delivering a fourth-round TKO victory over Romero Duno (24-3, 19 KOs) 2:54 into the round.
Also on FOX, Lenier Pero (6-0, 3 KOs) emerged victorious in an eight-round battle of unbeaten Cuban heavyweights, defeating Geovany Bruzon (6-1, 5 KOs) by unanimous decision with scores of 78-74 and 77-75 twice.