Undefeated Lester Martinez doesn’t let an ailment derail his plans.
Martinez, ranked No. 9 by The Ring at 168 pounds, will face Joeshon James on Nov. 9, ProBox TV’s Chris Glover told The Ring Monday night. The 10-round bout will take place at the Osceola Heritage Park Event Center in Kissimmee, Florida and will stream live on the ProBox TV app and YouTube channel.
The Martinez-James fight was originally scheduled to take place on September 11 at the Whitesands (aka the ProBox TV) Events Center in nearby Plant City. Martinez pulled out of the fight the morning of the fight, from what was explained to be an illness.
“Lester got an ear infection,” Glover told The Ring. “He also had headaches. At that moment we didn’t know what had happened to him, but Lester responded well to the antibiotics and treatment he received.”
The Martinez-Jones fight is a compelling clash between two undefeated super middleweights who have defeated solid opposition to get to this point in their respective careers.
Martinez (18-0, 15 KOs) posted an impressive unanimous decision win over contender Carlos Gongora in his last fight on June 28th. It was a one-sided win over Gongora, who fought to a close decision to defeat Christian Mbilli.
In his previous fight on February 23, in his hometown of Guatemala City, Guatemala, Martinez dropped journeyman Ruben Angulo once en route to a second round knockout victory in a busy fight.
The 28-year-old is co-trained by Brian ‘Bomac’ McIntyre, Esau Dieguez and Red Spikes, all of whom also co-train newly crowned WBA world junior middleweight titleholder Terence Crawford.
Martinez and Crawford made headlines a few weeks ago after a photo of them splashing each other in a Las Vegas gym made the rounds on social media. Crawford wanted to spare Martinez in anticipation of an opportunity to fight Ring Magazine super middleweight champion and unified world titleholder Canelo Alvarez.
Before the handful of fights under the ProBox TV banner, Martinez did stop the once-beaten Isaiah Steen on April 10 of last year.
James (9-0-2, 5 KOs), who lives in Sacramento, Calif., defeated Vaughn Alexander by unanimous decision in his last fight on February 16. In his previous fight on October 21, James defeated David Stevens in the opening round of a clash between undefeated prospects.
The 26-year-old fought through four straight fights with undefeated records, culminating in the knockout victory over Stevens. James scored a knockout win over Richard Brewart Jr. in September 2022. achieved and almost eight months later a draw against Javier Martinez.
James has faced a total of six undefeated fighters so far in his career.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at (email protected)
