Kiko Martínez

Francisco "Kiko" Martínez Sánchez (born 7 March 1986) is a Spanish former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2023. He is a world champion in two weight classes, having previously held the International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-bantamweight title from 2013 to 2014, and the IBF featherweight title from 2021 to 2022. At regional level, he held the European super-bantamweight title three times between 2007 and 2013, and the European featherweight title twice in 2018 and 2022 respectively.

Amateur career Martínez fought extensively as an amateur. He fought 40 amateur bouts and never lost, with 38 of those victories being by knockout. Martinez stated that he "could have gone to the Olympics – the Spanish amateur boxing association wanted me to sign a four-year contract but I wanted to turn professional".

Professional career Martínez turned professional on 11 June 2004, defeating David Casero by knockout in the third round on a card that included Javier Castillejo.

Martínez went on to win all of his first 11 fights with each victory coming via a knockout within four rounds.

The Martínez camp stated that they knew there would be a first round victory and that many of them had placed bets worth thousands of pounds with Irish bookmakers at odds of 66/1 that Martínez would win in the first round.

Controversy Martínez had signed to fight another Irishman, the Las Vegas-based former WBC bantamweight champion, Wayne McCullough at Belfast's Kings Hall on 1 December 2007. McCullough had already contracted to fight at 2 lb over the championship weight and he weighed in at . However, Martínez failed to make the agreed weight and was 1.75 lb over the agreed weight.

First loss Kiko Martínez made his first defence of the EBU super bantamweight title against Rendall Munroe; a title he had successfully taken from Bernard Dunne in August 2007. The fight against Munroe took place at the Harvey Hadden Leisure Centre, Nottingham on 7 March 2008.

The fight turned out to be fairly uneventful as Munroe countered Martínez by blocking and counterpunching, without ever troubling the champion. Meanwhile, Martinez failed to land the big shots that had seen him stop Bernard Dunne. The fight went the full 12 rounds, with Munroe winning by a majority points decision.

Martínez vs. Frampton On February 9, 2013, Martínez faced Carl Frampton in front of Frampton's home fans in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. Martinez lost by TKO in Round 9 losing the European Super-bantamweight title. Carl Frampton and Kiko fought again in September 2014 in Northern Ireland.

“Since the 9th of February 2013, when I get up at five in the morning to go training, I remember him. For me, to defeat him is a greater motivation than the chance to unify the belts," said Martinez.

"I will never forget that night and I will prove that it was just a bad day for me. I am world champion now and my legacy will be bigger for facing Carl Frampton.”

IBF super-bantamweight champion On 17 August 2013 in New Jersey, Martínez beat Jonatan Romero by TKO to win the IBF Super Bantamweight title. After 2 successful defenses, Martinez then had a rematch with Carl Frampton resulting in Martinez losing his IBF belt.

Since then Martinez has had ten wins and 5 losses. Three of these losses were against World Champions Scott Quigg, Leo Santa Cruz and Gary Russell Jr.

Professional boxing record