Seeing the inside of Madison Square Garden for the first time didn't intimidate Ryan Martin this week. It invigorated him.
And the Chattanooga native is ready for his own version of March Madi-ness tonight in front of an expected crowd of 15,000 and HBO's pay-per-view audience building up to the middleweight championship unification fight between Gennady Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs.
As with the headliners, "Blue Chip" Martin and Bryant "PeeWee" Cruz bring only one professional loss between them into their 10-round lightweight title fight opening the PPV card at 9 p.m. The 5-foot-7 Cruz (17-1) will be trying to take away the WBC Continental Americas belt the 5-11 Martin (17-0) won last September, the other time he was on a Golovkin-headed card.
The 24-year-old Martin has given his championship belt a shorter name.
"It's the 'first belt,'" he said Friday.
While he plans for more, he cherishes it too much to give it up.
"Cruz's record shows he's a competitive fighter. He's a good boxer," Martin said. "But I plan on dominating him from the first bell. I'm going to dominate. This is my show. I'm the headliner (in this fight)."
He told FirstClassBoxing.com a few weeks ago that "this is my night to show the world who Blue Chip is, who Ryan Martin is. I feel like I'm more focused than I've ever been."
But does the opportunity to show by far the biggest audience he's ever had leave him open to be too aggressive, too determined to put on a show, perhaps to the extent of forgetting the caution that goes with his usual level-headed approach?
"Joe (Delguyd) will keep me in line," Martin said in reference to his trainer, "but the spotlight won't get to me at all. It's the big city with big lights. And Madison Square Garden is an amazing place. It's the biggest stage, but that won't bother me. This is part of my job. This is what I've wanted."
He's had two fights in the Forum in Los Angeles; he's been in the Legacy Arena in Birmingham on a card headed by heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. He's convincing when he says the world's most famous indoor sports venue won't get to him.
Cruz, 27, is a native and resident of nearby Port Chester, N.Y., and all but four of his pro fights have been in the New York area. But Martin's style, ability and smiling personality have gained him considerable fan support in the past, and he thinks those assets will more than counter whatever hometown-favorite advantage Cruz may have.
"I don't think that will be a factor at all, that the other kid's from that area," said Hixson's Joe Smith, who is in New York to see one of his former protégés with Chattanooga's Y-CAP boxing program.
Smith has been to impressive venues throughout the world, having served as team manager for U.S. boxers in the Beijing Olympics, but this is his first visit to Madison Square Garden.
"I would have never dreamed of seeing one of our boxers at this level," Smith admitted. "You always hope for the best for them, and to take boxing as far as they possibly can, but you never think something like this can happen."
Martin's success has been particularly gratifying to the Smith family - Joe's son Andy was Y-CAP's head coach through Martin's amateur years - and the young fighter spent a lot of time at their house. The New York trip was an investment in itself, Joe indicated after his "two-hour, 60-dollar cab ride" Friday from LaGuardia airport to downtown Manhattan.
"Everything is so expensive here," Smith said. "But this a great stage for Ryan to get a lot of exposure. If he can win two or three more fights, he could get a (world) title shot."
Martin has helped prepare for that by watching Golovkin and his team up close, away from the bright lights of the fights. The 2011 Central High School graduate did some preparation for one of his late-2016 fights at Golovkin's training complex at Big Bear Lake in California and spent the first five weeks of his training for tonight's fight there again, before returning to Cleveland, Ohio, his home base now.
"He was in Big Bear for the benefits of altitude and the benefits of sparring," said Martin's manager, Tim VanNewhouse, "and he got some tips from Hall of Fame trainer Abel Sanchez. Ryan's got a great team behind him."
That includes managing his weight "in a healthy and safe manner," VanNewhouse said, to keep Martin fighting at 135 pounds on his 5-11 frame.
Indeed, Martin said Friday that he feels great physically as well as mentally.
"I've been 100 percent healthy, and training camp was great, and my body is 100 percent ready to compete," he said.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.