Lester Martinez. Photograph courtesy of ProBox TV
Lester Martinez continues his march in the direction of the higher echelon of the tremendous middleweight division.
Martinez, rated at No. 8 by The Ring at 168 kilos, will face Joeshon James on September 11, Chris Glover of ProBox TV instructed The Ring on Wednesday morning. The ten-round bout will happen on the Whitesands (also called the ProBox TV) Occasions Heart in Plant Metropolis, Florida and can stream stay on the ProBox TV utility and YouTube web page.
“Nobody desires to struggle Lester Martinez. It’s so simple as that,” Glover instructed The Ring. “For me, he’s prepared for (Christian) Mbilli, he’s prepared for (Diego) Pacheco, he’s prepared for (Erik) Bazinyan. He’ll struggle any of those children, however nobody desires to struggle him. Joeshon James is stepping up. He’s acquired extra balls than all these different fighters do. Joeshon James is a recreation child. I’ve quite a lot of respect for him, however Lester Martinez is world class and he’s a future champion of the world.”
In his final bout on June 28, Martinez (18-0, 15 knockouts) scored a powerful unanimous choice victory over Carlos Gongora. It was a one-sided victory for Martinez over a prime contender in Gongora, who fought Mbilli to an in depth choice loss.
On February 23, in his hometown of Guatemala Metropolis, Guatemala, Martinez dropped journeyman Ruben Angulo as soon as en path to a second spherical knockout victory in a stay-busy struggle.
The 28-year-old is co-trained by Brian ‘Bomac’ McIntyre, Esau Dieguez, and Purple Spikes, all of whom additionally co-train newly-crowned WBA world junior middleweight titleholder Terence Crawford.
Martinez and Crawford generated a buzz a number of weeks in the past after a photograph of them sparring one another in a Las Vegas gymnasium made the rounds of social media. Crawford needed to spar Martinez in anticipation of a possibility to struggle Ring tremendous middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
Previous to the handful of fights below the ProBox TV banner, Martinez did cease once-beaten Isaiah Steen on April 10 of final yr.
James (9-0-2, 5 KOs), who resides in Sacramento, California, defeated Vaughn Alexander by unanimous choice in his final bout on February 16. In his earlier struggle on October 21, James stopped David Stevens within the opening spherical of a conflict between unbeaten prospects.
The 26-year-old went by a stretch of combating 4 consecutive fighters with unbeaten information, culminating within the knockout win over Stevens. James scored a knockout win over Richard Brewart, Jr. in September 2022 and a split-decision draw in opposition to Javier Martinez nearly eight months later.
James has confronted a complete of six unbeaten fighters so far in his profession.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has lined boxing in Southern California and overseas since 2000. Francisco additionally covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He will be reached at [email protected]
