Marko Martinjak is encroaching into another bridgerweight title defense set for BKB 61 against Matty Askin on November 14th.After mentioning how much the city of London is interwoven into his incredibly impressive journey with BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing, Marko Martinjak said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah, it is my 10 years with BKB. 10th year with BKB. If I hadn’t been in jail for that three and a half years, they would have much better score, much better record. But London is my hometown, second hometown from where I [am] living. So I think it’s my seventh O2 appearance, I think.”
After mentioning that the Croatian champ is in the penultimate fight of the card, with acclaimed boxer Lee Selby set to headline in his sophomore BKB bout, Marko Martinjak stated [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah, but I think the thing of those ex professional boxers it’s like a little downgrade to us. We were with company very long that’s my personal opinion and we built this company from the beginning. Me personally because I was on a BKB 1, so this is the BKB 61 now. But it’s time to show the those ex-professional boxers that they don’t belong here, that this is completely another sport.”
After asking to specify if there were particular boxers he was referring to or just the broader crop of boxers crossing over to the Trigon for gloveless combat, Marko Martinjak quipped [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah, I am talking about all boxers who was saying this isn’t boxing and I think many of them on a very painful way going to find out this is the real deal. This is the real fight. That you can hide behind gloves, behind some kind of defense which one you can do in a professional boxing. So, it’s going to be very painful lesson for all of them.”
After mentioning how some see a red flag in the idea of a boxer not actively working the active clinch portion of the bare knuckle game before crossing over, Marko Martinjak said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“But listen, I don’t think the clinch game is so much important. It’s important that you figure out when you fight against; maybe when boxers [are] fighting game MMA fighters. But when you fight a boxer you can see between me and Dan Podmore when we fought, when we were clinching, we like didn’t hit one each other in the clinch. So I think most of the boxers [are] going to just do regular Queensberry rules. So without clinching.”
That’s fine by me but that clinch; listen I was a Muay Thai champion of the Croatia. I trained like through three years Muay Thai. So I know how to clinch but I think to be very aggressive, very precise, and powerful and fast is much important for bare knuckle.”
“Because defense you got with in a sports with the gloves that that isn’t working in a bare knuckle that is completely another game. Like it’s same like fighting with a 4 oz gloves bare knuckle and that is very similar like every boxing or extreme boxing with 4 oz gloves. But when you have 10 oz gloves that’s completely different. Different sport.”
Marko Martinjak “This Kingdom is mine and mine alone”
While a Cody East matchup seems to loom in the distance, for the victor as the next BKB bridgerweight title challenger, Matty Askin is the locked in task, and when touching on the moving parts there, Marko Martinjak stated [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah, but when they first asked me to fight Matty Askin, we were supposed to fight at heavyweight. Then when I got the contract for the fight, I see it’s a bridgerweight fight. It’s a title fight. So, then I asked him, it’s a title fight. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it’s a title fight. So, I said, okay, no problem. But listen, he has only one win and for me, he doesn’t deserve the title fight.”
“Let’s leave in the past his professional boxing career. It was great. But this is the professional boxing and for me you didn’t earn that shot. It is given to you. For me, I was waiting for the fight between Cody [East] and [Ike] Villanueva and I was presuming that Cody will beat Ike and he’s going to be my next challenger. That I going to do next fight [at] heavyweight but it is what it is. I don’t give a **** who it is. So everybody’s going to be destroyed against me.”
While bridgerweight is the optimal class for ‘MMM’, a move up in weight could entice the multi-division BKB champion, as Marko Martinjak quipped [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah. bridgerweight is the best class for me. So if there is a weight category 95 kilos, I would [to] go down and be in the middle of the bridge and death [laughs]. So in the old BKB, I used to; it was like 95 kilos. I held that title also.”
Touching on Askin’s singular bare knuckle win that netted him this title bid, Marko Martinjak said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Listen, he was on his ass in the first second of the fight, and in my opinion that guy wasn’t ready. He gassed out and because of that, he was gassed out. He lost the fight. He was two time knockdown or three. I don’t know. He is dangerous fighter. He knows how to throw punches. He’s cool boxer. I give him all respect because of that; listen, this kingdom is mine and mine alone.”
