Tony Martin was left in an unusual situation this past weekend at UFC Fight Night 103.
Martin’s cup broke during his fight on FOX Sports 1 with Alex White, leaving him with a choice to make. He figured that situation out and went on to claim a decision win, but it made for an interesting fight the rest of the way.
“It was kind of an awkward situation and I’m going through my head, ‘I don’t want to take the chance of them calling the fight off over something stupid like this,’ so we just cut off the strings and I just put it in my regular compression shorts,” Martin said (thanks to MMAjunkie for the quotes). “Obviously it wasn’t tight or anything, and it was moving around the whole time. It was just kind of an awkward situation and it threw me off. The first 30 seconds, we had the game plan of being first and landing first and it worked out perfectly, and then it all threw off my whole game.
“I blame myself. I let it mess with my game plan, and that’s what I was mostly disappointed in. But it was a 30-27 win, so you can’t be too disappointed because a win in the UFC is a big win.”
Entering the night below .500 in the UFC, Martin (11-3) knew a win was very important to even his Octagon mark at 3-3. Now, he wants to take on a bigger name in his next bout.
“If I had to throw out one name, I would say there’s one guy out there that keeps fighters that don’t belong in the UFC (in Mickey Gall),” Martin said. “He’s 3-0 and he’s fought a guy that’s never fought a mixed martial arts fight, he fought a guy that was a pro wrestler, and then he fought a guy that’s a pretty boy – he’s a nice guy, but he’s just a pretty boy. He’s not a real fighter.”
