Their paths crossed thrice in sparring sessions throughout the years, and on Saturday, they finally met in a sanctioned fight.

Martin was doing more than enough to score a decision through the first six rounds and ultimately zapped Zaina in the seventh of their junior welterweight fight scheduled for 10.

After a workmanlike 18 minutes, Martin finally caught Zaina with an incredible left hand that rattled him in the seventh, followed by a procedural right hand that dropped him. Zaina's legs were out, but he got back up, only to endure a flurry that forced referee Angel Ramos to stop the fight at 2:38.

"The Camel" Zaina (18-4-1, 12 KOs) was in no way haunted by "The Ghost" Martin (20-1-1, 14 KOs) in the early going, but it was the more comfortable Martin who connected with the cleaner shots in a competitive clash.

Combinations were few and far between, and the craftier Martin outboxed the forward-marching Zaina off his back foot in a fight that was originally more difficult than most thought it would be.

"I got the stoppage, that's the main thing," Martin said during his post-fight remarks. "I came in and got what I wanted. It took me a little while to get going, but we got it done."

CompuBox credited Martin with landing 86 of 310 punches and Zaina with connecting on 51 of 241.

Martin, with a new team in tow, returned to the win column after fighting to a unanimous draw against Nahir Albright in February. Before that, he viciously knocked out Rances Barthelemy in December and was on the wrong side of a knockout loss himself during a lightweight title shot against Gervonta Davis in June 2024.

While Martin came into the clash as a known commodity, Zaina walked into the matchup as an international man of mystery.

Zaina is a 31-year-old Moroccan fighting out of Tijuana who built his record against obscure opposition across Mexico, Colombia, Pakistan, and Gibraltar. He's now fallen short each time he's stepped up in competition. Zaina also lost by eight-round unanimous decisions against Delante "Tiger" Johnson and Rohan Polanco in 2024.

Martin-Zaina took place on the undercard of the junior lightweight title unification bout between O'Shaquie Foster and Emanuel Navarrete at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas as part of a Top Rank Boxing show on DAZN.

Lightweight prospect Deric "Scooter" Davis passed another checkpoint in his ascending career by scoring a shutout eight-round unanimous decision against Joaquin Silva Faccio.

Davis (12-0, 10 KOs), a 24-year-old Fort Washington, Maryland native, leaned on a solid north and south attack and was awarded scores of 80-72 across the board against the gritty 22-year-old Uruguayan (10-1, 4 KOs).

CompuBox credited Davis with landing 168 of 399 of his punches – 69 to the body – while Faccio connected with 61 of 367.

The win was the third consecutive eight-round decision for Davis, who is still developing and coached by Barry Hunter. He kickstarted his career with 10 consecutive KOs in a total of 16 rounds.

Other undercard results:

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan