Charles Martin

Charles Lee Martin (born April 24, 1986) is an American professional boxer who held the IBF heavyweight title from January to April 2016.

His 85-day reign as champion is the second-shortest in heavyweight boxing history, after Tony Tucker's 64 days in 1987 (also as IBF champion).

During Martin's short reign as IBF champion, he reached a peak active heavyweight ranking of ninth by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.

He was never featured in the top ten rankings of either BoxRec or The Ring.

Martin had 64 fights as an amateur, having started boxing at the age of 22.

Martin won via TKO in the 10th and final round with a minute remaining.

Martin's next defence came on April 25, on the undercard of Klitschko-Jennings at the Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, New York against British boxer Tom Dallas.

The fight lasted one round as Dallas was knocked out by a straight left hand to the head from Martin.

Martin made his fourth and final defence of his WBO–NABO title on September 25 at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama against Mexican WBO latino heavyweight champion Vicente Sandez (15–4, 10 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round fight.

By the third round, Martin was ahead on all three judges' scorecards 20–17, knocking Sandez down in round 2.

The fight was stopped by referee Flynn Gerald, 35 seconds into round 3 following another knockdown.

In 2012 he won the National PAL Championships.

Martin turned professional on October 27, 2012.

He made his TV debut on ESPN July 19, 2013, when he beat Aaron Kinch by a fourth-round TKO.

On September 21, he beat then-undefeated Vincent Thompson (13–0).

The fight was in Thompson's home state Washington and Martin got a unanimous decision.

He dropped Thompson in the first round, for the first time in his career.

On October 25, Martin defeated Haitian Dieuly Aristilde, by TKO in round one.

On November 14, Martin became the first man to ever stop Joey Dawejko.

Martin dropped Dawejko in the 4th round.

Dawejko's corner asked to get the fight stopped between the 4th and 5th rounds.

Charles Martin fought 11 times in 2013.

On December 21 he won against undefeated Cuban heavyweight Glendy Hernandez (10–0).

On April 16, 2014 Martin won the vacant WBO–NABO heavyweight title by beating former undefeated boxer Alexander Flores by KO in the 4th round.

Martin was in a non-title fight a month later against 38-year-old journeyman Rafael Pedro at the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, California.

In an overmatched fight, Martin floored Pedro twice in round one winning the bout via knockout.

In July 2014, Martin successfully defended the title for the first time at BB King Blues Club & Grill in New York against 37-year-old veteran Kertson Manswell.

Manswell hadn't fought in seven months, since his loss to Wendell Jorkhu.

Martin entered the bout with a seven-fight knockout streak.

Martin won via the third knockdown rule, knocking Manswell down three times in round 3, forcing the stoppage.

After a six-month gap, Martin returned to fight Damon McCreary (15–3, 11 KOs) in a non-title six-round bout.

Martin won after 2 minutes into the first round via TKO.

Martin made a defence of the title on February 28, 2015 against former Brazilian heavyweight champion Raphael Zumbano Love (35–9–1, 28 KOs) at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, Arizona.

Following Tyson Fury's win against Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015 in becoming the new unified heavyweight champion, the IBF ordered Fury to make a mandatory defence against Vyacheslav Glazkov.

However, Fury opted to take the rematch against Klitschko, thus being stripped of the IBF title in the process.

The IBF then ordered Glazkov to fight Martin for a vacant world title on January 16 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Glaskov's purse for the fight was $804,700, whilst Martin had a purse of $433,300.

Martin claimed the vacant title by stopping Glazkov in the third round, due to injury.

By round 3, the scorecards were (19–19, 20–18 Glazkov, and 20–18 Martin).

Glazkov slipped to the canvas when he fell backwards after trying to dodge a right hook from Martin.