by David P. Greisman

Boxing promoters and managers tend to have high hopes for most of the fighters they sign. Not all of those dreams become reality, but occasionally they do. And Leon Margules of Warriors Boxing says that he knew the day would come that Charles Martin would have a heavyweight title around his waist.

He didn’t know it would come when it did, with Martin topping Vyacheslav Glazkov this past Saturday by third-round technical knockout to win the International Boxing Federation belt left vacant after being stripped from heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Glazkov lost when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and was unable to continue.

“When I came home from New York last May or June when I met Charles and we made a deal to work together, I told my [partners] … that we just signed the next heavyweight champion of the world,” Margules said at the post-fight press conference. “I was that confident. Did I expect it to happen this quick? Did I expect Tyson Fury to beat [Wladimir] Klitschko and the title to get vacated? No. But I expected him to win the heavyweight title.”

Martin, a 29-year-old who was taking a step up in level of competition against Glazkov, is now 23-0-1 with 21 KOs.

This isn’t the first time Margules has had a heavyweight titleholder in his stable. He sees great value in having another one, particularly an American one, and one he thinks will distance himself from the other big men in boxing today.

“I’ve had a piece of the heavyweight championship before with Sultan Ibragimov. There’s nothing better than being involved with the heavyweights. It usually drives the train,” Margules said. “And for many years in the U.S., with Ali and Frazier and all the great American heavyweights, well they’re back. You’ve got two of the four belts now here [Deontay Wilder has the other one]. And this guy’s the real deal. He’s better than all of them [heavyweights today]. And he’s going to beat all of them at some point.”

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