Lester Martinez seeks WBC interim title fight, following Fight of the Year honor

In anticipation of new WBC 168lbs titlist Christian Mbilli waiting to defend his belt versus former champion Canelo Alvarez in September, Lester Martinez requested Tuesday to fight for the organization’s interim belt.

Guatemala’s Martinez 30-0-1 (19KOs) visited WBC officials with advisor Robert Diaz in Mexico City, gathering his fight-of-the-year award following his nonstop toe-to-toe scrap with Canada’s Mbilli 29-0-1 (24KOs) in September on Alvarez’s card with Terence Crawford.

Following Crawford’s retirement in December as undisputed 168lbs champion, three of the four sanctioning bodies were left to find replacement titleholders.

Jose Armando Resendiz, 14-2 (11 KOs) was already the WBA interim titlist at the time. His belt has since been upgraded to the full version. 

Likewise for Mbilli and the WBC, though only after plans fell through for an ordered vacant full title fight with Hamzah Sheeraz, 22-0-1 (18 KOs), who will instead pursue the WBO belt.

It was announced Tuesday that Osleys Iglesias, 14-0 (13 KOs) and Pavel Silyagin, 16-0-1 (7 KOs) will meet for the vacant IBF 168lbs belt on April 9 in Montreal. 

While there was a push for Mbilli and Martinez to stage a rematch, Mbilli can now turn to a more lucrative bout versus Alvarez this September in Riyadh.

Martinez is seeking to become the first world champion from Guatemala.

His promoter, ProBoxTV’s Garry Jonas, is expected to move quickly to select an opponent and venue for a spring bout for Martinez if the request for the interim title fight is approved.

“We make concessions for people like Canelo. It’s practical,” Jonas told BoxingScene Tuesday.

(Disclosure: Jonas owns ProBoxTV and BoxingScene).

“I’m hopeful they will grant Lester the right to fight for the interim belt.”

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.