Kiko To Be A Reality Check For Quigg

Kiko Martinez, a boxer who is no stranger to playing the role of pantomime villain, looks brilliant value at 7/2 (Boyles) to upset the apple cart against Scott Quigg on July 18th in Manchester. Quigg is a best price of 2/7 to emerge victorious, but I believe the bookmakers have massively underestimated the Spanish fighter.
Quigg goes into the fight unbeaten, with two draws and 28 wins from 30 bouts. However, his quality of opponent has to be seriously questioned. Yaoandris Salinas was probably his hardest opponent on paper, and he only managed a draw against the Cuban. Salinas has since gone on to lose to a journeyman with a 15/7 record, so in hindsight he wasn't all that his undefeated record made him look to be, and Quigg was lucky to get the draw against him.
People will point to the fact that Quigg made short work of Rendall Monroe, who beat Martinez twice, easily on the second occasion, back in 2008/9. However, the truth is that Monroe was in his pomp back in those years, and the Monroe that Quigg beat was a shadow of the fighter that boxed the ears off Kiko and just fell short in his world title challenge in Japan.
Quigg has also faced the likes of Munyai, Silva and Jamoye, none of whom are exactly household names. In fact both Munyai and Silva went on to lose their subsequent fights after facing Quigg too, further exposing the lack of quality opponents he has faced so far. He has been very well protected by Eddie Hearn, but Kiko Martinez will be a different animal to anything he has encountered in his career to date.
Martinez has a serious pedigree, and it is hard to believe he is still only 28 as it feels like he has been around for decades. He burst onto the scene in 2007 with a devastating knockout of Bernard Dunne in front of a stunned home crowd, and it was a shock to everybody bar Kiko's entourage, who had a tasty wager on the first round ko at tasty odds if my memory serves me correctly.
He has fought Carl Frampton twice, and lost heavily both times, but there is no shame in that. Frampton is without doubt the real deal, and Rigondeaux is the only man he has to fear in the division. After his first defeat to Frampton Martinez was written off again, but he answered the critics with a shock knockout victory over the useful Colombian Jhonatan Romero, when he took the IBF title. He defended successfully twice, before Frampton put him in his place in their rematch.
Martinez has no fears of fighting on foreign soil, as he has illustrated repeatedly during his career. His biggest wins came in the USA and in front of a partisan and passionate Irish crowd, so he seems to relish silencing the boo boys. I can see him flying out of the blocks and going for the kill straight away. If he manages to connect with one of those booming overhand rights early on it could spell trouble for Quigg. Once Martinez gets his opponent on the back foot the pressure is relentless. The jury is well and truly out on whether Quigg will be able to handle that. For my money it will be a bridge too far for the Bury boxer and Martinez will emerge victorious, with an early stoppage the most likely result.

Advised bets: Martinez (win) 7/2

                       Martinez (Method of Victory by ko/tko) 5/1.

                       Martinez (Round 1) 50/1, Martinez (Round 2) 40/1.