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After Lester Martinez fought to a split draw in a hellacious battle against then-WBC interim super middleweight titlist Christian Mbilli on the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford card last September, he hoped for a rematch.
Alas, he did not get one.
Instead, after Crawford outpointed Alvarez for the undisputed super middleweight title he was stripped of the WBC belt in a spat over unpaid sanctioning fees and soon after vacated the rest of the belts and retired. The WBC elevated Mbilli to the full titleholder and Martinez next faced Immanuwel Aleem on March 21 and won a lopsided decision to claim what had become the vacant interim title.
And while Mbilli is moving on to make his first defense of the full title against Alvarez on Oct. 31 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Martinez is moving on with his career also but hoping he will get a chance to face the Mbilli-Alvarez winner.
In the meantime, Martinez will make his first interim defense against unbeaten Luka Plantic in the ProBoxTV headliner on Saturday (ProBoxTV, 7:30 p.m. ET) at USC’s Galen Center in Los Angles. The card marks the start of ProBoxTV’s launch of a monthly $5 subscription fee for what it promises will be high-quality cards (available to stream on its and YouTube channel).
“There was a lot of pressure last time out,” Martinez said. “There was a lot of pressure winning the belt and performing. There were other things, but we learned from them. There’s always room for improvement. Aleem showed good resistance. (He was) a very good, strong opponent, but this time around, we’re gonna do things much better, trust me.”
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