Martin Climbs Off the Canvas to Upset Picasso on Canelo Undercard

Carl Jammes Martin produced one of the surprises of the night in Riyadh on Saturday, climbing off the canvas to upset David Alan Picasso by split decision on the Canelo Alvarez-Christian Mbilli undercard. Picasso, who had only previously lost to Naoya Inoue last December, looked to be in control when he dropped the Filipino in the seventh round, but Martin survived the scare and finished strongly enough to convince two of the three judges. The victory earned Martin the WBC Silver featherweight crown and handed Picasso a second career defeat. The bout was part of a busy undercard at the Kingdom Arena, where Jaime Munguia retained his WBA super-middleweight title against Nikita Zon, Rafael Espinoza kept his WBO featherweight belt with a third-round stoppage of Ricardo Blandon, Reito Tsutsumi stopped Raymundo Rojas Garcia in two rounds, and Bek Nurmaganbet scored a first-round knockout of Marco Vazquez Rodriguez. The main event saw Canelo reclaim the WBC super-middleweight title from Mbilli by unanimous decision, but Martin's comeback win was the night's standout upset.