Marko Martinjak is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world of gloveless combat in the eyes of many, and he aims to author the next triumphant chapter in his story this weekend. Martinjak will defend his bridgerweight belt, and the man who recently relinquished his super cruiserweight crown will aim to halt Ike Villanueva in the headliner of BKB 51 on Saturday, February 21st.
The BKB bridgerweight champ has signed a contract extension with BKB and has been fighting for 10 years under the old BKB regime. Since BKB 1, Martinjak has fought for the company, and this was under the prior tenure of the company. A time before the acquisition piece from the former BYB, which is now BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing today.
Martinjak is a multi-weight champion under the old BKB regime as well as a present-day BKB titleholder and will battle someone vying to become a multi-division BKB champ in their own right. Former BKB heavyweight champion Ike Villanueva is the combatant in question, and when giving some of his thoughts on the machinations of the matchup, Martinjak said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“I knew it since Jarome [Hatch] fought Ike [Villanueva]. When they announced that fight, I knew that the winner gonna fight me because Ike was first and Jarome was second on the ranking list. So, I wasn’t very, very surprised when Ike beat Hatch. For me, that wasn’t the fight of the night of that night. It was very boring fight. Ike made it very boring. He leaned on Jarome and he couldn’t finish the guy who had only one hand. Because I talked to Jarome after the fight. He said to me that he broke his hand in the first round.”
“So if you say that he is high caliber fighter then I don’t know if you’re enough educated to say that because in the three fights with me and Jarome, I put him down eight times. Yes, in the first fight I got knocked out but I knock him down two times. Second fight, I beat him and in third fight, I rip him apart. In every fight, Jarome was 10 kilos heavier than me.”
“So when we fought 88.5 kilos, I was 89, he was 99. So when we fight 93, he was like 100 kilos. So for me, Ike is just another another step to the greatness. So I don’t think that he’s on my level. I think that nobody in my category is on my level and I will prove that again and everybody going to see that next Saturday.”
When asked if he was using Hatch as a comparison framework, relative to how both BKB 51 headliners performed against him, to articulate why he’s not impressed with the ex-UFC vet Villanueva, Martinjak stated [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah, listen, you are as good as your last fight. So if you; Okay, he got two wins in a row. I have seven wins in a row with six first round KOs. If you’re going to go with the professional boxing and extreme boxing, I’m right now with 11 fights, 11 wins, and 10 of them was in the first round. So, I’m not scared of him. So, if he thinks that because of his size and his strength that he thinks that he’s going to beat me because of that, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t beat the fact because I’m very strong.”
“I had surgery four months ago for metacarpal bone in my finger and I can tell you that I after two weeks after surgery I went to my gym. Everybody thought that I’m crazy but I knew I have a title to defense. I want to fight in the London. This is my fifth time to fight in O2. I had four fights, four victories, and now it’s going to be my fifth fight, and it’s going to be my fifth victory.”
Marko Martinjak aims to be remembered a century from now for his bare-knuckle boxing prowess
Throughout the BKB chat on Bare Knuckle Bowker, the Croatian combatant frequently used the phrasing about ‘taking steps towards greatness’.
When asked what that ultimately looks like to him in terms of a certain set of goals or a particular series of happenings that would resemble fully actualizing his potential, Marko Martinjak quipped [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“What we do in life echoes in eternity. So in 100 years, when I’m going to be dead, they will in the history will remember that Marko Martinjak was multi-weight champion of the world. So that is the purpose of this what I’m doing. No, my name is going to be remembered.”