A SECOND professional defeat for Swindon welterweight Ryan Martin has not dimmed the belief of trainer Paddy Fitzpatrick that he has a world champion-standard fighter on his hands.

Martin’s bid for the vacant IBO Continental welterweight title ended in a points decision loss to Shropshire’s Craig Morris in Leicester earlier this month as stablemate Luke Watkins successfully defended his Commonwealth cruiserweight title on the same All Or Nothing Cyclone Promotions card.

It was a second defeat in three contests for the 23-year-old, who was also unsuccessful when going for the vacant WBC Youth World welterweight title against Michael McKinson in Swindon in April, but Fitzpatrick insists the raw stats present a misleading picture of his man’s attributes.

“It was a bruising battle,’’ said the Ferndale Road-based trainer of Martin’s clash with Morris. “We didn’t get the result we wanted, the right man won. Craig Morris was a deserved winner.

“But Ryan Martin is 100 per cent world-class. Anybody looking at his record and seeing that he’s 8-2 will say how can you say that?

“But when you look at him from a technical standpoint, he’s got excellent balance, he can box southpaw and orthodox both with the same ease.

“He has got excellent power, good hand speed, head movement, everything that you would want to see in a fighter.

“When I go back through any of the fighters I have ever worked with, he has every attribute you need to be a world champion. He has everything and he shows it in the gym.’’

Fitzpatrick revealed that a future addition will be made to Martin’s training team to help his excellent preparatory work manifest itself in the ring.

“He has everything that you would like to see,’’ he said of Martin, who along with sponsors Allen & Foxworthy donated 40 tickets to emergency and military service personnel for the Leicester fight.

“It’s about us, on certain nights, taking what we know and we see in the gym and taking it into these fights of significance.

“We’re going to be making an addition to the team. There isn’t anything missing, it’s just not using what he has.

“I’ve known him since he was 12/13 years old and I know what type of young man he is and what type of fighter he is and he’s excellent in both departments.

“It isn’t that he was doing something in the fight that was getting him in trouble, it’s what he wasn’t using that was making him fall short.

“You can go into a fight with the wrong game plan that’s getting you in trouble, but there’s a difference between that and when you can see it’s what you’re not doing that’s making you fall short.

“It’s like he was in first gear. He hurt Craig badly in the first round and nearly had him out of there. He hurt Craig probably another four or five times but there was just that next gear. It was almost like he was over-analysing the situation.

“It’s frustrating and heartbreaking for him and me and anyone that knows him, but everything that he needs is there, it’s just being able to bring it out.’’