Lester Martinez has done his part. Now he waits on Canelo Alvarez and Christian Mbilli.
The WBC has mandated that the winner of their October 31 fight makes the next defense against Martinez. He locked that in on Saturday in Los Angeles, stopping Luka Plantic in the 10th round to keep the WBC interim super middleweight title. Martinez is 20-0-1 with 16 knockouts and beat Immanuwel Aleem in March to take the interim belt back.
He is not fussy about which man he gets.
No, look, at the end of the day, I’ve said it before: the second fight [with Mbilli] will happen, possibly next year or the year after. But either one of those fights makes sense for us.
We know the eyes of the world are going to be on [Mbilli-Canelo], and because we’re going to be there, we’re going to take advantage of all of that. But both fights are going to happen.
Martinez has unfinished business with Mbilli. The two fought to a split draw over 10 rounds on the Canelo and Terence Crawford undercard last September, with Mbilli keeping the interim title.
Canelo has not fought since that night. Crawford beat him by unanimous decision for the undisputed super middleweight championship, and Canelo had elbow surgery the following month. Crawford then retired in December and gave up all four belts, which moved Mbilli up from interim to full WBC champion.
Alvarez and Mbilli meet in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with Mbilli defending the full title for the first time and Canelo chasing one of his old belts. The fight was originally set for September 12 before Canelo pushed it back, citing a family matter that delayed his camp.
Martinez has a useful corner for this. Brian “BoMac” McIntyre trains him and trained Crawford, which puts the man who drew up the plan that beat Canelo on Martinez’s side. McIntyre said after the Plantic win that he likes his fighter against either of them.
