Lester Martinez. Photo courtesy of ProBox TV
Lester Martinez continues his rise to the upper echelon of the super middleweight division.
Martinez, rated No. 8 by The Ring at 168 poundswill face Joeshon James on September 11, ProBox TV’s Chris Glover told The Ring on Wednesday morning. The 10-round bout will take place at the Whitesands (aka the ProBox TV) Events Center in Plant City, Florida and will be streamed live on the ProBox TV app and YouTube page.
“No one wants to fight Lester Martinez. It’s as simple as that,” Glover told The Ring. “For me he is right for (Christian) Mbilli, he is right for (Diego) Pacheco, he is right for (Erik) Bazinyan. He will fight any of these kids, but no one wants to fight him. Joeshon James performs. He has more balls than all these other fighters. Joeshon James is a game kid. I have a lot of respect for him, but Lester Martinez is world class and he is a future champion of the world.”
In his last fight on June 28, Martinez (18-0, 15 KOs) scored an impressive unanimous decision victory over Carlos Gongora. It was a one-sided victory for Martinez over a top contender in Gongora, who fought Mbilli to a decisive loss.
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 created a buzz 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 super middleweight champion 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)
