Lester Martinez is looking beyond his August 29 title defense, but the Guatemalan champion knows he has business to take care of first.
Martinez (20-0-1, 16 KOs) will defend his interim WBC super middleweight title against undefeated Croatian Luka Plantic (13-0, 10 KOs) at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. While he is focused on maintaining his undefeated record, Martinez admitted that he will be keeping a close eye on the October fight between Christian Mbilli and Canelo Alvarez.
“I will watch this fight between Canelo and Billi. I will be one of the most interested,” said Martinez. “Right now, I’m more focused on Luke and taking care of business on August 29, defending my title. We can look forward to that big fight and hopefully, yes or no, we’ll fight the winner.”
Martinez believes that Plantic’s victory should put him in a position to rematch Billi or give Canelo a shot.
“I’m going to train hard. I’m going to do everything I can to make things work, to defend my title, and then go ahead and fight a rematch (with Mbilli) or a fight with Canelo. I hope that after the defense, that’s the next fight.”
The 29-year-old claimed the interim WBC belt in May by defeating Kareem Hackett Aleem and is coming off the biggest result of his career, a draw with Billi last September on Turki Alalshikh’s Las Vegas card. Martinez admitted that there are aspects of his last performance that he wants to improve before facing Plantic.
“There was a lot of pressure in the last time. There was a lot of pressure to win the belt and perform,” said Martinez. “We learned from them… there’s always room for improvement. Aleem showed good resilience. He was a tough, tough competitor. But this time, we’re going to do things a lot better. Trust me.”
Martinez also revealed that his training camp will be longer this time as he prepares for what he described as another dangerous undefeated opponent.
“We’re fighting a very dangerous opponent. There’s a reason he’s here. He’s in the top 10. He’s undefeated, and he’s earned that. But we’re going to make changes. Our camp is going to be longer this time.”
While Martinez hopes to get a shot at the Canelo-Mbilli winner, the super middleweight division is full of title holders and top contenders all chasing the same opportunity. His immediate career remains defending his interim belt against Plantic before any talks about a rematch with Mbilli or a tough fight with Canelo become a reality.
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Last updated on 2026/06/29 at 10:48 PM
