Grande Prairie's Alexander Martinez (middle right), his wife Oliva (far right) and coaches Luis Martinez and Bill Mahood (left side) at PFL in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Photo Credit: Olivia Martinez

By Shane Clausing (Twitter: @ShaneC06)

Alexander Martinez

Grande Prairie’s Alexander Martinez motivated following first PFL win

Apr 28, 2021 | 11:27 AM

Grande Prairie’s Alexander Martinez says he’s motivated and excited after picking up his first-ever victory in the Lightweight Division (155 lbs) of the Pro Fighting League (PFL) on Friday, April 23 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Martinez, who fights out of Champions Gym and Gladiators Martial Arts Academy in the Swan City defeated Loik Radzhabov from Dushanbe, Tajikistan via a split decision on Friday’s PFL fight card.

“I’m not proud of my performance because I know I could do better, but then again I’m very proud because I took this short notice,” Martinez said to EverythingGP, following the win.

Martinez took the fight on short notice and wasn’t even on the PFL fighting roster up until late March.

Prior to getting the call to the PFL roster, Martinez and his wife were living in an RV and travelling across western Canada.

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Essentially, he and his wife were searching for any gym that would allow for Alex to train for whenever he would get the call asking him to fight. At the time, Alex was shortlisted by the UFC, so he had to be in decent shape because he could potentially be called to fight at any moment.

As he and his wife were travelling in the lower mainland one day in late March, Martinez got a call asking if he would be interested in fighting for PFL as an alternate. The job of an alternate fighter is to step in and fight if someone in the league picks up an injury.

“Being an alternate for PFL is a big step,” said Martinez. “They secured me a fight whether I was going to fight in the tournament or not.”

As an alternate, Martinez would have to travel to every fight, almost without knowing if he could be fighting on the card.

“I wasn’t sure if it was the right move for me because I was on the shortlist for the UFC. I was like, is it good that I took this?”

In the weeks leading up to PFL’s first card of the season, American Johnny Case suffered a serious injury training and Martinez was offered the chance to replace Case for the entire 2021 season.

“All of a sudden, my coach on Friday night (March 26) calls me and says, ‘guess what, you’re into the 2021 PFL season, you’ll be fighting for the $1 million (grand prize).”

As soon as Martinez learned he was fighting on April 23, he had to rush to Atlantic City. In order to fight on the card, Martinez and his crew would have to train for the fight in an isolated hotel environment for 17 days.

Before he got to Atlantic City, Martinez needed to fly to Ottawa in order to get a Canadian passport and work visa, so he could legally work and get paid in the United States.

After he was approved to fight in the United States by the federal government, his crew, which featured his wife and coaches, flew to Atlantic City.

Once Martinez and his team got to the Atlantic City bubble, they ran into some trouble.

“My training partner sadly tested positive for COVID, so he had to be isolated,” explained Martinez. “He had to stay in isolation for the whole time.”

As a result of Martinez’s training partner testing positive for COVID-19, his father Luis Martinez had to train him to get ready for the fight.

“My father was there training with me, grappling with me, he was doing everything with me,” explained Martinez.

“It is incredible what that man had to do with me. He’s not young anymore. If it wasn’t for him, that victory wouldn’t be in my sights.”

Martinez also had to cut weight before he fought Radzhabov. He tells EverythingGP when he went into the bubble, he weighed 185 pounds, so he had to cut 30 pounds in order to make weight.

With his road trip training across western Canada now complete and coming out of the Atlantic City PFL bubble with a victory, Martinez says he’s excited for the next challenge that awaits.

“I’m excited because all of those things were against me and I still came out on top. I didn’t quit, I pushed through and I am ready. I have more confidence than before and I’m just excited for what’s next.”

It won’t be known until May who Martinez will fight. He currently is training in Las Vegas awaiting word from the PFL on the next schedule release.

Most of the fighters on the PFL roster have fought in high levels of MMA before, including the UFC. The biggest name of note in the lightweight division is Anthony Pettis, who was among one of the top UFC Lightweight Division fighters from 2007-2018.

While he was hesitant about joining the PFL initially, he says he so far really enjoys fighting in the league.

“Now that I’m with PFL I have a format. I know when I’m going to fight next and they keep you active. I’m going to (fight) 4-6 times more and that’s unheard of for professional fighters. We need to be active and we need to make money.”

Martinez wanted to thank his coaches, trainers, family and everyone from Grande Prairie who was involved in helping get him to this point in his career.