In the co-main event of a Top Rank card taking place at the Palms in Las Vegas, Nevada, saw Andres Cortes (20-0, 11 KOs) of Las Vegas, Nevada, get the biggest win of his career defeating Xavier Martinez (18-2, 12 KOs) of Sacramento, Ca, after trainer Robert Garcia called a halt to the fight prior to the start of the eight round in the ten-round fight.
The story of the fight was this bout created a true contender in the super featherweight division, and that proved to be Cortes.
In the first round, Cortes started fast looking to test Martinez early. Martinez weathered the storm, but Cortes outlanded Martinez sixteen punches to six in the first round. The second was a bit of the same, but Martinez seemingly switched the script as he began to effectively pressure Cortes in the following two consecutive rounds. These rounds were best defined as grueling - maybe not the prettiest, but brutal and highly damaging to both fighters.
The fifth was a swing round, a round that if both fighters could have it back, they probably both would've fought differently. The sixth saw Cortes move and look to find windows of opportunity while Martinez continued to target the body. Martinez was getting caught clean trying to close the gap in these exchanges at times. In the seventh round, the swelling around Martinez's eye left transitioned into a cut after a Cortes right hand, as Martinez began to show a lot of damage from the fight. The fight became simple to see what was happening as at range Cortes was landing effective shots, but when Martinez got close he would land some damages blows.
Yet, in a shocker, Robert Garcia refused to allow Martinez, his fighter to answer the bell for the eighth round, awarding Cortes the winner by way of technical knockout, via a seventh round technical knockout
The official scorecards at the time of the stoppage saw Cortes up on two of the three judges scorecards at the time of the stoppage. After the fight, Cortes called for the winner of Oscar Valdez and current WBO super featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete.
'They going to need [expletive] army to stop me,' said Cortes after the fight.
Robert Garcia explained he didn't see what he wanted to see and he didn't hear what he wanted to hear from Martinez in the corner.
