The accumulation of knowledge being gained by Lester Martinez has taken him from unknown Guatemalan prospect to WBC interim super middleweight beltholder.
As Martinez, 30, steps to his prime and toward a second consecutive sellout crowd in Southern California on August 29, his cause has been fortified by a wanted visitor.
Unbeaten, retired five-division champion Terence Crawford has joined Martinez’s training camp in Colorado Springs, Colorado, under the direction of former trainer of the year Brian “BoMac” McIntyre to ensure Martinez, 20-0-1 (16 KOs), reaches his desired heights.
By sparring Crawford and soaking in the wealth of wisdom and abundance of fighting nastiness that made the Nebraskan the best fighter of his generation, Martinez yearns both to defeat Croatia’s WBC-ranked southpaw contender Luka Plantic, 13-0 (10 KOs), and to position himself for a full title shot at the Halloween winner of new champion Christian Mbilli’s title defense versus Mexico’s four-division champion Canelo Alvarez.
In September 2025 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Martinez rallied impressively to fight Mbilli to a draw, and Crawford then produced the best fight of his life to defeat Alvarez by unanimous decision.
In McIntyre’s dream state, he sends Martinez and Crawford to Saudi Arabia in late October for an up-close view of the Mbilli-Alvarez bout.
“It’s already written, you know – ‘Let’s take care of [Martinez’s] business next weekend,’ and then one of those guys, in order to be called the best, you’ve got to beat this kid right here, sitting ringside, licking his chops,” McIntyre said.
Martinez would be locked in on both Canada’s Mbilli and the aging Alvarez, McIntyre reasons, thinking, “If I didn’t damn well beat you, [Mbilli], well, the world would say I beat you. My partner beat you, [Alvarez].
“Now I’m gonna come clean both of you motherfuckers up. You know what I’m saying? I’m gonna finish what Bud [Crawford] started.”
McIntyre said Martinez was already trending favorably during this lengthy training camp in the high altitude while Plantic prepares under trainer Joel Diaz in the relentless summer heat of Southern California’s Coachella Valley.
Martinez, coming off an unappetizing victory by unanimous decision over ranked contender Immanuwel Aleem in March in San Bernardino, California, is pursuing a finish of Plantic, who knocked out Mbilli as an amateur.
Martinez looks “really sharp, man,” McIntyre said. “You know, we’re winding down this week. It’s our last week of sparring. What we’ve been working on is just trying to keep him a little bit more busy, a little bit more technical.
“Not so many wide punches and shit like that. Just box a little bit more. Box your way into the heavy shots.
“It’s a lot of the same stuff we’ve been working on since day one, since he came around. Slowly, but surely he’s learning it, by seeing it himself. So this camp is almost like the last camp with a little bit more technique – make sure your feet are set, make sure things your punches are short, that you’re punching off your jab, you’re not getting your feet all tied up.”
How will these upgrades pair within Plantic’s confidence of never losing, of wanting to ruin the favored contender’s support inside USC’s Galen Center from a robust weekend Guatemalan gathering in Los Angeles?
“He’s pretty much tailor made for Lester,” McIntyre said. “He likes to fight. He likes to stand in front of you. He wants to get his shots off. That’s good. Lester’s a fighter too. And you see it when you’re in front of Lester and challenging him. Lester will punch him back.”
McIntyre has witnessed those moments excessively with Martinez.
“That’s just his will, man. That’s the will he has, that he just wants to win,” McIntyre said. “He wants to get to that next level. He wants to be the champion. Whatever [Plantic] did in the amateurs … these are the pros. And you got somebody in front of you. Lester’s improved just a little bit more each fight, and I think he’s going to be a lot better in this fight.”
A convincing victory next week on ProBox TV makes Martinez the clear frontrunner for a shot at the Alvarez-Mbilli winner, even though WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman has previously permitted his countryman Alvarez to dodge an immediate bout with another interim champion, David Benavidez, while Saudi Arabia boxing financier may push heavily for the winner to meet one of his favorites, WBO 168lbs champion Hamzah Sheeraz.
“I just think that [Martinez] knows he’s in a good spot, because I constantly remind him that throughout the camp,”McIntyre said. “And in order for him to get to that next level, to be the full champion,he has to do special things. And he’s more than willing to do it.
“You see it in training, for the last fucking two and a half months, and just in that commitment he has to his training and getting better. It just shows me that he really, really wants it.”
By joining the sessions, Crawford has deepened Martinez’s drive by taking the work so seriously that many are speculating Crawford will end his retirement after walking away as undisputed super-middleweight champion in December.
McIntyre insists Crawford will remain retired, that he was drawn to Colorado Springs because he’s a good teammate and is fond of the area he spent so many years training.
Crawford arrived, “just to give us some inspiration… He knows what it’s like, so he just wanted to come up here, check on Lester, check on the team and make sure everybody’s doing good and put a few rounds in with Lester. That it.”
So disregard the conspiracy theorists assessing Crawford, 38, will be the next to fight Alvarez.
“Hell no, he ain’t coming back. He’s done. He don’t need to come back,” McIntyre said.
Still, how’s Crawford looking?
“I mean, he’s looking sharp, man. His weight is fine. He’s always in the gym, always playing basketball, always on the move, always training. So he looks good,” McIntyre said.
“You want that as a trainer. You want one of the best pound-for-pound fighters of all time to just come down and hang out and stay with you guys for a group and give his assessments on how things are looking and get the feedback, giving Lester some pointers here and there. You want that, man.That’s just gratifying to the coaches because, you know, he cares.
“He cares about the other guy that’s in his camp, about where their journey’s at, where their journey’s going. So that’s gratifying to me.”
And few things would be as gratifying to Crawford than helping his stablemate Martinez prepare to replace him as undisputed 168lbs champion, perhaps by also conquering Alvarez.
“Exactly, man,” McIntyre said. “Just, can you imagine?
“Just having the blueprint that we have to beat that guy. And, we got a fighter that’s a little bit more eager to fight Canelo than he is to fight Mbilli again,because, you know, that Canelo Alvarez name carries a lot of weight.”
The August 29 event, headlined by Lester Martinez-Luka Plantic and also featuring Najee Lopez, Ramon Cardenas, Luis Torres and Weljon Mindoro, is live and exclusive on ProBox TV
