Lester Martinez was one point on one scorecard away from winning the interim WBC super middleweight title last year.
Instead, his Fight of the Year candidate with Christian Mbilli was ruled a split draw. Instead, Mbilli retained the secondary WBC title. And instead, Mbilli is the one who’s been upgraded to the sanctioning body’s primary titleholder at 168lbs now that undisputed champion Terence Crawford has retired and vacated his belts.
Martinez’s adviser wants to make certain the unbeaten 30-year-old from Guatemala gets another shot. Robert Diaz tells BoxingScene that he plans to petition the WBC for either a rematch with Mbilli or, in lieu of that, for Martinez to compete for an interim belt.
“The WBC thinks highly of him,” Diaz said. “Lester’s worked hard to get to the position where he is. Lester deserves it. And I think there’s a strong case to get it done.”
Mbilli vs. Martinez took place on the September 13 undercard of Crawford’s victory over Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in Las Vegas. The highly entertaining 10-rounder ended with one judge scoring it 97-93 for Martinez, one having it 96-94 for Mbilli, and one seeing it even at 95-95. Mbilli, a 30-year-old fighting out of Montreal, Canada, is now 29-0-1 (24 KOs) while Martinez is 19-0-1 (16 KOs).
“Had that fight with Mbilli been 12 rounds and not 10, I think the world saw that he would’ve won that fight, so today he should be the world champion,” Diaz said.
Given the announcement by Turki Alalshikh that Canelo will be back in September in a world title fight, Diaz believes it’s possible that Mbilli could be the one to defend against the dethroned superstar.
“It’s frustrating that [Martinez] didn’t get the decision or the win that night, but I can understand if Mbilli does get that opportunity,” Diaz said. “That’s the opportunity that every fighter dreams of. So I can’t blame [Mbilli] to say, ‘No, I'd rather fight Canelo or rather fight [Hamzah] Sheeraz than fight Lester,’ especially when he’d been in the ring with a guy that maybe he feels could beat him anyway. ‘So if I’m going to lose, I’d rather lose to the biggest name in boxing.’”
Martinez is ranked third by the WBC, behind Canelo at No. 1 and Sheeraz at No. 2. The WBC had ordered a fight between Mbilli and Sheeraz, 22-0-1 (18 KOs), but has since canceled that, as Sheeraz is going in another direction. Sheeraz will instead face Alem Begic, 29-0-1 (23 KOs), in May for the vacant WBO belt.
While last September didn’t bring the result Martinez and his team would have wanted, there’s still the benefit of performing well under a huge spotlight on Netflix.
“He gained a lot of exposure,” Diaz said. “The fans got to know him. He fought in Mexico in the past, but being on the Canelo undercard, he was in the eyes of a lot of Mexican fans, and I think they really appreciate him. I hope they can get behind him, as well as his country in Guatemala. And I think hopefully, God willing, he will be making history as the first world champion from Guatemala.”
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
