A very brief interview with Victor Martinez on his first day out
by Muscular Development’s Ron Harris
MD: Thanks for calling and I won’t keep you long. I know you have a lot of catching up to do. How confident were you that you would be allowed to stay in the US? Steve told me this particular judge deports 80 percent of the cases he sees?
VM: 84 percent. Yeah, it was tricky and I was pretty worried. They were looking for reasons to deport me all along.
MD: So what do you think made the judge decide to let you stay?
VM: It was a few things, I think. I’ve been in the USA since I was four years old, I have four kids here, and probably most important of all - I’ve paid a lot of fucking taxes to Uncle Sam, and that’s all on record with the IRS. So maybe he sees me as contributing to the country that way.
MD: This all happened at the Federal Building in New York City. Did you have to go back to Hudson County in New Jersey to get your stuff?
VM: No, I didn’t want to go back there, I’ve seen enough of that place! I didn’t have anything back there that was important to me. Before I left for New York I gave it all to a buddy of mine in there, my books and magazines.
MD: What was your first meal as a free man, and your second?
VM: The first thing I ate was a whole barbecue chicken with rice, and it was delicious. After that my brother took me to an Argentine steakhouse and I got a 24-ounce churrasco steak.
MD: So, are you starving now that you have access to good food again?
VM: Not really, because I haven’t been training. If I don’t train, I don’t have much of an appetite. Once I’m back into hard training every day again, it will be a different story.
MD: Have you seen your kids yet?
VM: I saw my two girls, and I’ll see my sons next week.
MD: You must be dying to train again. When will you have your first workout?
VM: I was thinking about Monday, but now I’m thinking about just going tomorrow. I need to find a yoga club or a fitness place so I can blend in!
MD: Okay, let me stop you right there. Haters have been saying you must not be about 170 pounds now. I am guessing you’re nothing less than 200. What do you weigh?
VM: I’m 220. I haven’t been 170 pounds since I won the Elmo’s Gym contest when I was 19. I was actually 165, I started my diet at 170. Whatever, if the haters want to think I weigh 120 pounds, let them. They’re the last thing on my mind now.
MD: So 220 and lean, not a bad starting point at all.
VM: Yeah, I could probably do the 212 Olympia in a few months.
MD: But seriously, you’re not going to train at any of your usual gyms for a while?
VM: I think I’ll stick to the Equinox Club and 19th Street Gym for at least a couple weeks just to do some full-body circuits and start getting things back to normal. It will probably take me about a month to get back up to speed and start doing one bodypart a day again.
MD: Okay, I know you have a lot going on now, so what would you like to say?
VM: I want to thank Steve Blechman and MD, Gerard Dente, all my family and friends, especially Jonathan, Dennis James, and anyone who helped me stay positive through the last seven months. Anybody who was there for me or even who just supported and believed in me even if I never met you, I appreciate it. This was just a small chapter in my life. It happened, and it’s part of what makes me me. I wouldn’t change a thing. To the negative people who doubted me, have always doubted me, and will continue to doubt me, you don’t know a damn thing about true warriors. We don’t give up.
