They’ve got a good role model, someone who shows up to the gym, works hard, goes to the fight, gives his best effort, picks up his check and heads back home. No trash talk, no antics, just a blue-collar fighter trying to provide for his family. He’s actually a mirror image of his opponent, Yanez, and it’s not surprising that once Martinez met his fellow Texan for the first time, he wasn’t too interested in fighting him.
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“We met at a fight and it was really cool,” said Martinez. “I remember I told one of my coaches, ‘I’ll fight anyone except Adrian because he’s cool.’ But his name came up. So I was like, ‘Oh s**t, I guess we got to fight now.’”
It’s not the first time this has happened to Martinez, with him pointing out having dinner with Vince Morales two months before he got the call to fight him in May of 2022. Martinez won that fight, and he plans on putting his feelings about Yanez aside this weekend because this is business, never personal.
