Red Deer boxer Arash Usmanee took a major step in his quest for a Canadian professional championship Saturday night in Montreal by scoring his second consecutive second round knockout in a two-week span.
Usmanee dropped Carlos Martinez of Mexico three times enroute to stopping him at 1:03 of the second round. Two weeks ago Usmanee dropped Hugo Pacheco of Mexico three times, stopping his opponent at the 1:28 mark.
“The fight went OK,” said Usmanee. “The first round was my better round. I started really relaxed. When I hurt him though my warrior side took over.”
The first round started with Martinez (5-8-0) coming out trying to land bombs. Usmanee easily slipped the punches, and then came back with the jab, driving his opponent into the corner where he dropped him with an over hand right. Martinez barely beat the count and then after that went into survival mode.
“I bombed him with the right hand, and it was a nice right hand, and he dropped,” said the former five-time Canadian amateur champion. “Then that is when everything went wrong. I have this killer instinct that takes over and I got out of my pattern. He was ducking down and trying to come up and grab me. My corner told me to bend my legs stay down and I just kept hitting him with the uppercut.”
In the second round Usmanee, 28, continued to pursue Martinez eventually dropping him with another right hand. Martinez once again beat the count, but a combination put him down for good.
The win moves Usmanee to 7-0, 4 KO’s and puts the boxer in a spot to challenge for a Canadian National Championship. He fights again on September 18 in Montreal and then after that he would love to challenge for either the super-featherweight or lightweight titles. The lightweight title is vacant but his preference would be to fight super featherweight champion Pier Olivier Cote, 12-0, 7 KO’s, a man he beat twice in the amateur ranks.
“I beat him by 14 or 15 points each time,” said the Red Deer boxer. “I am positive he won’t fight me, but I would like to see where he is professionally.”