Victor
Martinez recently highlighted the importance of a stable job
for fighters.
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While Martinez has been a licensed firefighter since 2018, he never
applied for a job, prioritizing his goal of getting into the
Ultimate Fighting Championship. “The Brick” finally earned his
ticket to the big league with a unanimous decision win over
Jacob
Rosales on
Dana White’s Contender Series in September 2021. Martinez then
got hired by the Hidalgo Fire Department after his UFC debut in
February 2023, and the 32-year-old feels things are falling into
place for him.
“Man, I had my firefighter license since back in 2018 but I just
wanted to focus on getting into the UFC first before getting a
job,” Martinez told The
AllStar. “So I was just renewing my license every year and I
got signed to the UFC [in] 2021 after Contender [Series]. And I was
like, ‘OK, I already made this goal happen, let me try getting a
job somewhere else, so I started applying in different cities and
Hidalgo Fire Department picked me up. And yeah, well I mean
everything kind of fell into place.”
Martinez suffered a first-round TKO loss against Jordan
Leavitt in his promotional debut. He was then booked for a
clash against Trevor Peek
at
UFC on ABC 5 in June 2023 but pulled out due to undisclosed
reasons. Martinez later revealed that his coach advised him to pull
out, as he was in the middle of his firefighter job hunt and also
battling a knee injury.
“After my first UFC fight I was trying to get hired somewhere as a
firefighter and my coach was like, ‘Let’s not move too quickly,
let’s take a little break, focus on what you gotta do, keep
training, keep getting ready and then we’ll get you something later
on down the line instead of rushing it.’ So, he ended up pulling
me,” Martinez said.”I was getting ready for that as well. I had a
little injury in my knee as well so training also kind of flared it
back up.”
Martinez also detailed how a stable job has helped him as a
fighter. “The Brick” was admittedly obsessed with the paycheck
going into his UFC debut and believes it affected his performance.
Imparting private lessons at gyms to get by, Martinez had even
stopped enjoying training.
However, the job has taken a large load off the Texan’s back as he
prepares for his sophomore UFC outing. Martinez will look for his
first promotional win against fellow newcomer Tom Nolan at
UFC Fight Night 241 on May 18.
“I felt every fight before I got this firefighter job, like in the
Contender Series, I felt lot of pressure,” he said. “And going into
my first UFC fight I felt even more pressure on that one, because I
felt like, ‘Man I can’t blow this, it’s my first UFC fight.’ And I
didn’t have a stable job, I was working at gyms doing privates in
there, just trying to make some cash. And I had a lot of pressure
on myself like, ‘Man I gotta win this fight, I gotta make this
money.’… I wasn’t enjoying training as much, I was kind of just
like, ‘Man I’m broke, I gotta win this next fight, I gotta make it
happen, so I can get this cash and I can be OK for a while.’ And my
main thing is my mom, I’m always trying to help her out, that’s
been my main goal always… And like I said, all that build up it
just made me freeze up in the fight. Going into this next one, now
that I have this job and I’m more stable, I don’t have to worry
about all that. I’ve actually been enjoying training; I actually
like going to training now.”