By day Chris Martin monitors the yard as a pretrial detention officer at Corrections Corporation of America in San Diego.
By night he is fighting underneath the bright lights in an arena somewhere in America going toe-to-toe with the best featherweights the division has to offer.
“Marvelous” Martin, 28, fights out of Chula Vista. While he doesn’t possess the same name recognition as a Floyd
Mayweather or a Manny Pacquiao, he has been fortunate enough to fight on the premium boxing networks and on ESPN Friday Night Fights.
He credits his promotional team for putting him on televised boxing cards.
“My first big showing was on Showtime, on ShowBox, versus Chris Avalos,” the 128-pound boxer said. “And from there on people took notice.”
Martin said his split decision win against Avalos in 2010 was the biggest victory of his career. It gave him an identity in boxing and, more importantly, a contract with Top Rank, one of boxing’s top promotional companies.
But after two fights which ended in a draw and a loss, Martin became quickly schooled on the business side of boxing, as he was let go from Top Rank.
“As soon as you lose, man, that’s it,” he said. The ride is over, everything gets harder, (it becomes) more difficult.”
His record stands at 28-5-3, but his five loses may be a bit misleading as he took several fights on only a few week’s notice as a replacement fighter, as he did last December against the once promising Gary Russell Jr.
When the 5-foot-7” Martin first came on to the boxing scene he was known as Chris “The S.D. Kid” Martin, but he changed his moniker to Marvelous for tactical reasons.
“When I fought Chris Avalos in 2010, he was the Hitman, so in the ’80s who beat the Hitman? Marvelous Marvin Hagler,” he said. “So I just put it (Marvelous) to mess around and it stuck. I liked it and we just kept it from there.”
Martin’s journey into the boxing world began when he was 14 years old and was ruled academically ineligible for the soccer team at Southwest High School.
He said he wasn’t a bad kid in high school, he just didn’t have the grades to stay on the field.
He said at the point, his dad wasn’t going to let him sit around the house and do nothing, so he took him to the local boxing gym.
“It had been something that had been brewing for a long time, but I was scared,” he said about his first boxing session.
“Just like anybody else, you get in the ring for the first time you feel (a high level of) anxiety.”
He also admits that boxing kept him in the gym and away from high school parties, which he said kept him on track at school and kept up his grades to graduate.
He said sometimes he wonders how his life would be if he had been able to pursue soccer.
Growing up, Martin looked up to Tijuana boxer Erik Morales, not only for Morales’s dominance in the ring but for the way he cared for his community.
Martin said he had a grandmother who lived on the same street as Morales, and often he threw massive holiday parties and gave away washing machines and other necessities.
Martin said while he isn’t in the best financial position to give back to his community like Morales, he tries to embody himself as a good role model in and outside the ring.
He figures being a good role model is his way of giving back. He said he also spends time with any kid who comes in the gym wanting a boxing lesson.
When Martin isn’t giving his opponents a beating, he is conducting head counts at a detention facility in San Diego.
“Basically, I’m a high-paid baby sitter,” he said about his job. “Just keeping grown men in line is difficult.”
And while watching grown men may be as tough as boxing, it puts things in perspective for Martin.
“I do see a lot of examples of what I don’t want to be,” he said. “So I strive to be the best person I could be.”
Martin said he enjoys his day job and that it pays good money, more than boxing. to support his family of four, which include his wife of four years and his two boys.
However, there is one thing missing in the Martin household: a championship belt.
“It’s such a cliché, man, but everybody strives to be a world champion,” he said. “That’s what I want.”
