LOS ANGELES – Offering certain entertainment, an allegiant audience and a championship strap, Lester Martinez at 30 has a full grasp of what this means.
“They cannot escape me,” Martinez told BoxingScene Saturday night shortly after exiting the ring at USC’s Galen Center with a 10th-round knockdown and stoppage of unbeaten WBC No.4-ranked contender Luka Plantic.
Martinez, 21-0-1 (17 KOs), could go down the impressive list of who he’s referring to, including Mexico’s four-division champion Canelo Alvarez and the new WBC super-middleweight champion Christian Mbilli (whom Martinez fought to a draw in September).
It also counts new WBA 168lbs champion Jaime Munguia – “We’ll wash his ass,” Martinez’s unedited trainer Brian “BoMac” McIntyre said afterward – or unbeaten contender Diego Pacheco, who personally visited Martinez following the bout.
Croatia’s Plantic unquestionably tested Martinez, landing heavy blows on the Guatemalan during the first half of the fight before succumbing to the powerful response that featured more varied body shots like the left-handed gut punch that finally dropped Plantic earlier in the 10th, and creativity like the doubled-up combinations that broke the game Central European.
“He didn’t surprise me. I knew [Plantic] was strong,” Martinez said. “His power is strong. But as someone once said, seeing the bull is not the same as seeing it coming. I have respect for him.”
Martinez spoke to his retired stablemate and five-division champion Terence Crawford, who helped prepare Martinez with training-camp sparring before this fight.
Crawford reminded Martinez to move his head, and the Guatemalan making the second defense of his WBC interim super-middleweight belt cracked, “Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn’t.”
The performance was productive in two ways, in that it might encourage the potential Martinez foes to classify him as defensively vulnerable enough to pursue the fight and it generated a subscription-paying audience that left ProBoxTV founder Garry Jonas “happy” with the viewership as Jonas switched over from a free model for this card.
Martinez said the leading 168lbs fighters “are not going to escape me. I know they were watching this fight. I know the commitment to come. I know it is coming, and we will be working to allow that.”
Jonas said as they wait for the October 31 bout in Saudi Arabia between Mbilli and Alvarez, he will explore taking Martinez to a January soccer-stadium fight in Guatemala knowing the fighter’s popularity in his homeland.
Jonas has also said Mexico’s Munguia is an ideal alternate opponent for spring 2027 should the Mbilli-Alvarez winner dodge him.
“We’ve got the blueprint to beat those guys,” McIntyre said of Mbilli-Alvarez. “If we fight [Munguia], it’d be like taking candy from a baby… I know we’d wash his ass. The world can see how good Lester is – how smart he is, that granite chin he’s got.
“Do those guys really want to step in the ring against Lester Martinez? I don’t see it.”
Another ProBox fighter surging toward a title is light-heavyweight Najee Lopez, who remained unbeaten by stopping former unbeaten Colombian Olympian Juan Carrillo by ninth-round TKO on an uppercut to the gut.
Lopez said he was mindful of Carrillo’s power until the late rounds, when he opted to fire his jab and let his power punches fly to create the finish, confirmed by video replay.
Jonas said Lopez, ranked by three sanctioning bodies (No. 4 by the WBA), will return to fight December 12 in Kissimmee, Florida, in his continued pursuit of three-belt champion Dmitry Bivol or a potential shot at the WBC belt that might get vacated by unified cruiserweight champion David Benavidez.
“I’ll fight anyone,” Lopez said.
