That isn’t what I wanted. I don’t want to be in the sport forever. I don’t want to linger on with fighting for a living. So I’m going to take all these guys out while I’m here. I want all the big fights. There was a hype job around Anthony Joshua out here, a lot of people talking about him on the internet and stuff like that. Tyson Fury, Klitschko, Deontay Wilder, Povetkin, their fights were already sorted out. Those guys were busy, they were unavailable. The next guy was Anthony Joshua. He kept coming up in conversation, so that’s who I wanted.
What do you think of him as a boxer?
I’ve watched him. Obviously they treat him as more special then he really is out here because that’s their golden child out here in London. So they’re going to put a lot of hype around him. I see different. He’s beatable to me. So that’s why I chose him. Personally I think he’s too smart for his own good.
I just do what I do and I want the top guys. I want to get these fights in.
He won the [Olympic] medal. Look at his Twitter followers, a lot of people know him. Hey, that’s who I wanted definitely. He has more followers than Deontay Wilder, probably more people know him than Wilder. So we’ve got to fight those guys.
How pleased are you that the fight’s proved so popular?
The business side was a success. We made the right decision. We drew a crowd. Next is the hard training, like we’re already into.
How did you get started, did you do much as an amateur?
I had about 63 fights. I was a National PAL champion but I wasn’t really too stuck up on the amateurs. I wanted to get my experience and move on as soon as possible. Like I said, I don’t want to be lingering around in boxing for many, many years. I don’t want to be those guys that you see staying in it for too long. I want to leave how I came in it, healthy. I definitely live the lifestyle of a fighter, a clean healthy life. We’re just going to go head first into it. That’s been my mentality. Ever since I had my first amateur fight, we’ve been going no stop, no rest, no breaks. I take my little time off when I’m done fighting and I’m right back in it. I’ll take three days off, two days off, amateur fight I took two days, amateur tournament I took two days off. Right back in the gym, right back going. I won my national tournament and turned pro. We ain’t looked back ever since. My consistency is what’s paid off. That’s what I can say, if I had one word to describe my success thus far, I would say it’s been the consistency I’ve been involved with. That’s just how I work. If you’re going to reach the top you’ve got to stay consistent. That’s the key.
It sounds like you’ve got an exit strategy from the sport, what do you want to do after boxing?
Just investments, some investments in non-profits, motivational speaking, helping kids with no fathers, like how I came up. Just giving them some inspiration.
I know the fight with Vyacheslav Glazkov [when Martin won the title] ended quickly but how do you feel about your own performance?
It didn’t even get time to unravel before it was already done for. So I really don’t want really want to touch on that. Because I was disappointed in how he went down, how he went out. Even if that had happened to me, I would have gone out on my shield. I would have went out swinging. You’re in there an IBF world title, go out swinging. But that wasn’t his heart, that wasn’t his mentality so it ended the way it did unfortunately. But the belt is in the right hands. Charles Martin is the IBF heavyweight champion and we’re going to keep it that way.
