Martinez, who won eight times in total and achieved the Korean Dream through a PBA exceeding 1 billion in cumulative prize money, is satisfied with his good performance
Jul 08, 2025
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Participation in the first professional league held overseas. It may seem like a reckless challenge. However, Martinez proved that this challenge was the best choice of his life in six years. By winning both wealth and honor through the PBA, he achieved 'Korean Dream'.
Martinez won for the eighth time in his career by defeating Cho Jae-ho (45, NH Nonghyup Card) 4-2 (15-5, 2-15, 15-9, 11-15, 15-15, 15-15, 15-15, 15-15, 15-15, 15-15, 15-15, 15-15, 15-15, 15-15, 15-15, 15-15, 15-15, and 15-12 in the second tour of the Prodang-gu 2025-2026 season at Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, on the night of the 7th.
As a result, Martinez, a member of the PBA's inaugural year in the 2019-2020 season, set the record for the most wins (8 times) in PBA history. It's like Frederick Cudron (Belgium). In addition, he added 100 million won in prize money, becoming the first PBA to surpass 1 billion won in accumulated prize money. Martinez's cumulative prize money is 1.016 billion won.
In addition, he won the "Welcome Top Ranking" (prize 4 million won), which is given to the player who recorded the highest average of a game with 2.813 against Lee Hae-dong in the round of 64 of this tournament.
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Cho Jae-ho's status on the international stage was far higher than Martinez's when he was an amateur. It was incomparable. However, Martinez quickly turned professional and adapted to the new edition early on. Martinez's status is now higher than Cho Jae-ho's. in name and reality 'the greatest of all time'
The atmosphere was close at the beginning of the game. When Martinez won the first set 15-5 in seven innings, Cho Jae-ho trailed and won 15-2 in three innings with 13 high runs in the second set. A long game was expected.
However, Cho Jae-ho's momentum rapidly cooled from the third set. Martinez won the set with a sophisticated and bold bank shot in the sixth inning after making it 13-6 with six high runs in the third set 7-5.
The fourth set was the decisive match. Cho Jae-ho, who gave up three sets, scored six points in one inning and seven points in two innings to run 13-4. With two more points, I was able to tie the score to 2-2. However, Cho Jae-ho failed to hit the last shot, and Martinez threw a punch of counterattack without being daunted by his opponent's momentum. Martinez immediately scored an eight-run high run in the next inning to catch up 13-13.
It seems that it was rather Cho Jae-ho's side that was embarrassed. He only scored one point on the attack opportunity. Martinez came from behind to win 15-13 with two runs as if to show in the next inning. Set-score 3-1, effectively four sets of results, the weight of the match tilted significantly.
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Martinez said in an official press conference shortly after winning the championship that `I always feel the road to winning is tough. "If you win that much, you'll get a lot of money," he said. "'Especially in this tournament, I'm satisfied because I showed very good performance.'"
Regarding the accumulated prize money exceeding KRW 1 billion, "I'm very satisfied and happy about setting the record of being the first, but I don't really think much about the amount." Getting a trophy is always a more important goal for me. "When you win a trophy, the prize money comes naturally." "The team league is about to open, and I will do my best to help our team (Crown Haitai) advance to the postseason."."
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.