Just three days shy of a year since he had last fought, welterweight Mark Martin was finally able to get back into the cage when he took on Tony Grant at LFA 86 this past July.
Though he had an extended layoff, Martin looked as if he didn’t miss a beat, finishing Grant with eight seconds to go in the first round to pick up his third win a row.
“I think I showed a little bit of everything: stand-up, clinch work, wrestling, and a little bit of wrestling,” Martin told MMAWeekly.com. “There was no ring rust for me. I was training pretty much throughout the pandemic, getting rounds in, so it wasn’t too much of a difference.
“I’m very critical of myself. There were a few points in the fight; I think I got hit maybe two or three times when I shouldn’t have; other than that I think it went pretty smooth.”
In the months following his win over Grant, Martin has maintained his training and feels he’ll be even better in his next fight.
“I’m always working on my striking and grappling, and trying to add to my game,” said Martin. “Once I get a call for a fight, I start working on picking up the strength and conditioning, and picking up the harder MMA sparring rounds.”
This Friday in Park City, Kan., Martin (4-1) will look to keep his winning streak going when he takes on Matthew Colquhoun (8-4) in a main card welterweight bout at LFA 96.
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“My opponent is a long 170-pounder, kind of wild, unorthodox, but I’m not really too focused on him,” Martin said of Colquhoun. “I think if I come in and perform how I know I’m capable of I don’t think I will have too many problems. I think it will be a one-sided, dominant, affair.”
Having missed an ample amount of time of late for various reasons, Martin isn’t going to bank on anything in 2021 yet, but rather take things as they come.
“I always take it one fight at a time,” said Martin. “Especially in MMA, you’ll have people get injuries, fights drop out, as we’ve got Coronavirus right now people might fail Coronavirus tests, so all I can do is focus on getting better in the gym each and every day.
“Everything else will take care of itself when the time is right.”
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Mark Martin expecting one-sided win at LFA 96