by David P. Greisman

Charles Martin’s win over Vyacheslav Glazkov is a mixed blessing.

On the one hand, Martin picked up a vacant heavyweight world title with a third-round technical knockout. On the other hand, the victory came as a result of Glazkov suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, which meant that Martin didn’t get the satisfaction of having people see the win come at his hands and as a spotlight performance of what he can do in the ring.

Of course, being a heavyweight titleholder will allow him to get another moment in the spotlight sometime soon.

“I got a lot to show. I just wanted to display what we’ve been working on for so long,” Martin, a 29-year-old who moved to 23-0-1 with 21 KOs, said in a post-fight press conference. “Unfortunately it ended the way it did. But I’ll be back soon.

“I’m just excited. It’s still soaking in. I’m finally world champion. A lot of hard work. It was a long camp — 11 weeks,” he said at another point during the conference, referencing the time he’d spent preparing for a fight with Dominic Breazeale in December before this title shot surfaced instead for January. “That was a lot of pent up frustration and anger. And I had bad intentions on all of the punches I was throwing. Unfortunately it ended the way that it did. But he was a warrior. He’s a good fighter. I hope he’s OK and he can continue with his career.”

Martin acknowledged that Glazkov’s injury didn’t come as a result of what he did to him, but he also believed that Glazkov wouldn’t have stood a chance anyway and the victory would’ve come later on.

“I knew he was 20 pounds lighter than me. So I couldn’t throw a three-piece combination or anything more than that because he wouldn’t be there to get hit with it. I’m more of a calculated fighter. I won’t throw it unless I’m going to land it,” Martin said. “I knew I had to wait until he slowed down. We train to get stronger as the fighters get slower. They show weakness and fatigue in the ring, and that’s when we capitalize.

“I’m a patient fighter. I know we had 12 rounds to go. I was going to catch up to him eventually. He couldn’t get in to do what he wanted to do because I kept my distance,” he said. “He didn’t have a punch. He was going to my body and stuff like that. He just didn’t have enough power. So I was going to catch up with him eventually. I’m patient. I did not take credit for the ACL tear. I knew I didn’t hit him. I was confused — I’m like, ‘What just happened?’ I didn’t know what happened when it happened.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com