Sacrificing youth for a dream that no Catalan has made come true

Ruby"It's four o'clock in the afternoon, a new day begins", sounds in the Club Boxeo Vega de Rubí. Sandor Martín (Barcelona, 1993) shares with the Estopa the fact of having achieved success from the most working-class neighborhoods of the capital of Catalonia and its surroundings. The Muñoz brothers grew up in Cornellà and Sandor grew up in Nou Barris, where he has his boxing school and where he trains, the KO Verdun gym. He has not lived in poverty, he does not do drugs and he does not make humiliating remarks about his rivals. He neither practices nor likes the stereotypes of the boxing world that have fueled the behaviour of some of its protagonists and the films that have been made. The Catalan boxer simply had a dream and he has put all his youth at the service of this dream.

"I have never doubted that I could be world champion at my level. However, I have had doubts about whether I could ever have the opportunity to be one," said Sandor (42 wins, 15 by KO, and three losses) in an interview with ARA a few days before fighting for the World Boxing Council (WBC) super lightweight world title at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn against Dominican Alberto Puello, who has not lost a single fight as a professional (23 wins, 10 by KO, and zero losses).

The match will take place on Saturday night. "It's very difficult to be a boxer leaving from Spain. Everything is twenty times more difficult. I haven't had, especially in my beginnings, the support I needed, and I've had to fight harder than I should have to to get here. I could have given up at any time, but I haven't," he says about his doubts.

During the interview, which Sandor answers sitting on one side of the ring, a member of his team removes the bandage that he is wearing on his hands after having done a training session open to the media at the Vega Boxing Club in Rubí. Sandor jokes that he is hurting him with the scissors. "You will take my tattoo off!" The bandage is stuck to the skin as if it were plaster. But Martín does not have any tattoos. "Here there is a lack of institutional support and, above all, economic investment from sponsors and television. We get by with the money from the box office, and that does not allow us to hold big events or give projection to our athletes. Boxing needs to be professionalised in our country," he claims.

Sandor is convinced that if he defeats Puello his victory can boost the goal. "We have to change the dynamics of the sport of boxing in the country and be the spearhead of a movement that makes things easier for those who come after, so that they do not have to fight as much as I have had to do," he wishes. Have you already imagined yourself as a world champion in New York? "I haven't imagined it, but I want it to happen," he replies, laughing. "I need peace of mind." Will it be a weight off his shoulders? "Yes, yes. People ask me if I'm looking forward to March 1st and I answer that I'm looking forward to March 2nd because everything will have happened and I'll be calm with the work done."

The Catalan who went the furthest

In the history of boxing there have been a total of 14 Spanish male and female world champions, but none have been Catalan. The closest was Josep Gironès (1904-1982). This boxer from Gràcia, a sporting idol of the 1920s and 1930s in Catalonia, had the opportunity to be world featherweight champion in the Plaza Monumental in Barcelona in 1935 against Freddie Miller. But the American defeated him. "For me it is a challenge to be the best Catalan boxer in history and the first to be world champion. I feel very proud to put my name alongside eminences like Gironès."

Rafa Martín, Sandor's father and trainer, is also at Club Boxeo Vega. His shaved moustache, goatee and toothpick in his mouth make him unmistakable. "As a trainer, being a world champion is a dream I have yet to fulfil. I have had world champions in other disciplines, but I am missing one in boxing. And, as a father, seeing that your son has sacrificed his youth studying [he got to the fourth year of the degree in physical activity and sports sciences, when he left for boxing], training and competing at a high level and that he has done well, is a source of pride," he says, satisfied. "As a father, I would like all other parents to have the same luck as me. To have a son who studies, works and sorts out his life. What more could you ask for?"