Tony Martin Talks Keita Nakamura Matchup, Training at ATT & Moving Up To Welterweight
Tony Martin returns to the Octagon later this April at UFC Fight Night Atlantic City, making his welterweight division debut against Keita Nakamura.
Besides the move up a weight class, another move that Martin made was to move to Florida to train at American Top Team.
“Early on in may career, I was coming up to American Top team before I moved to Boston. I kind of had a little familiarity here and knew some of the coaches and training partners. It was always one of those things I wanted to come back to because I know that they had the best athletes, the best coaches and the best facilities. I was in Boston for awhile and it was kind of a struggle to get the right bodies into the gym, I was traveling a lot and it was finally time to make a move. Everything about ATT I liked and it was time to move down here, its just going to be the best in the long run,” said Martin in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
Martin did go 4-4-0 during a run at lightweight in the UFC, with his last fight in the division being a loss to Olivier Aubin-Mercier at UFC Fight Night Pittsburgh.
The welterweight divisions newest star feels like the UFC isn’t keeping him very active, so the thought has crossed Martin’s mind to start booking fights through a manager.
“I texted my manager right away and told him to tell the UFC I’ll take that fight (against Jake Ellenberger at UFC Fight Night Utica), I’ll start booking out fights right now for the remainder of the year if they want. I feel like they always try to keep me on the shelf forever, I’m over here trying to beg for fights. If I gotta start sitting over hear racking up fights for the next six months, that’s what I’m gonna do,” says Martin.
UFC Fight Night Atlantic City takes place on Saturday, April 21 from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey with Edson Barboza and Kevin Lee headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on Fox Sports 1.
