(AUGUST 22) On the 21st of August, 59-year-old Chris Martin suddenly passed away from a heart attack in Auckland, New Zealand. This has sent a shockwave of grief throughout the New Zealand boxing community.

Born in Napier, New Zealand, and resided in Auckland, Chris Martin is one of the most respected and kindest people in the boxing community in New Zealand. As far as people were aware, Martin was in good health, until his Heart Attack on Monday. Martin has trained a lot of many amazing people in New Zealand from amateurs to World Champion Professional boxers. Some amazing female boxers include:

WBO World Light Heavyweight Champion Geovana Peres. Martin helped train Peres alongside head coach Terry Batchelor during Peres's World title win against Lani Daniels and successful World title defence against Claire Hafner in 2019.

IBO World Super Bantamweight Champion Mea Motu. Before Mea Motu's highly successful professional career, Motu was a well-established amateur boxer. Martin took a team to the New Zealand national boxing championships in 2015, one particular member of his amateur team was Mea Motu.

IBF World Welterweight Champion Daniella Smith. In Daniella Smith's last fight of her career in 2014, the person you can see in Smith's corner was Martin. Martin would at one stage go on to train Smith's daughter, Talia.

Two well-known boxers that Martin would also train included David Tua. In 2011, David Tua was making a comeback after his draw with Monte Barrett. Tua wanted to change up his training for these two fights. The person from New Zealand who answer the call was Martin.

WBO World Heavyweight Champion Joseph Parker. In Parker's first fight in Australia in 2023, Parker needed someone to corner him. Martin would corner Parker in this fight, however, Parker did not end up needing it in the end as Parker won the fight by TKO in the first round.

Other well-known boxers Martin has trained included the Tai family (Daniel Tai, Jordan Tai, Joshua Tai, Monica Tai), Olympian Soulan Pownceby, Olympian Siona Fernandes, Brian Minto, Richie Hadlow, Marcus Heywood, Brian Minto, Afa Tatupu, Steven Heremaia and Nikolas Charalampous.

Martin has achieved a lot as a trainer and had a large amount of knowledge in the sport of boxing. He was always very kind to everyone in Boxing and would gladly shake anyone's hand and talk for hours about boxing. RIP Chris Martin.

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