Charles Martin to face Gregory Corbin on Spence-Garcia card

Former heavyweight titleholder Charles Martin will face Gregory Corbin on March 16, with the fight airing on FS1 during the pre-pay-per-view coverage for the Spence-Garcia card that night at AT&T Stadium in Texas.

Martin (25-2-1, 23 KO) won the vacant IBF heavyweight title in Jan. 2016, beating Vyacheslav Glazkov via third round TKO. It was a weird fight, with Martin winning when Glazkov suffered a knee injury, and even before the fight, the IBF title had been stripped from Tyson Fury just 10 days after he won the belt from Wladimir Klitschko in Nov. 2015.

Ultimately, it wound up a way to get a belt on rising star Anthony Joshua, who trounced Martin inside of two rounds in April 2016 to take the belt, which he’s held since.

Following the loss to Joshua, Martin was out of the ring for a year, returning in 2017 to score easy wins over journeymen Byron Polley and Michael Marrone. He sat out over a year again, then returned in Sept. 2018, losing a close decision to unbeaten Adam Kownacki on the Garcia-Porter card in Brooklyn.

At 32, Martin could still have some good years left in the division, and he’ll be favored against Corbin (15-0, 9 KO), a 38-year-old club fighter from Dallas who will be taking a big step up in competition.

Along with the Spence-Garcia main event on March 16, the pay-per-view portion of the card will also feature David Benavidez vs J’Leon Love, Luis Nery vs McJoe Arroyo, and Chris Arreola vs Jean Pierre Augustin.