Lester Martinez Wants Canelo or Mbilli — But He Has to Win First

Lester Martinez has thrown his name into the super-middleweight mix, telling Fight Hub TV he'd welcome a shot at either Canelo Alvarez or Christian Mbilli — provided the reward is the full WBC belt. The catch is that the 30-year-old still has business to handle: he defends his WBC interim title against unbeaten Luka Plantic on a ProBox TV card in Los Angeles this weekend.

Martinez knows Mbilli well. The pair boxed to a 10-round draw on the Canelo-Crawford undercard last September, after which Mbilli was upgraded from interim to full WBC champion. Martinez said the rematch is the fight fans already want, but he made no secret of preferring the Canelo option — a name, he argued, people will actually pay to watch. He added that if he and Canelo ended up in opposite corners, the world would eventually see how it played out.

Where Canelo Fits

The Mexican hasn't fought since that same Las Vegas card, where he dropped his undisputed 168lb crown to Terence Crawford by unanimous decision. Canelo went in the betting favorite thanks to a natural size edge, but Crawford — now 42-0 (31 KO) — outboxed him in stretches and left with all four belts. At 36 and carrying a record of 63-2-2 (39 KO), Canelo isn't retiring. He's trying to reclaim a quarter of what he lost.

That comeback runs through Mbilli. The unbeaten 31-year-old Frenchman makes the first defense of his WBC title against Canelo in Riyadh on October 31. Like Martinez, Mbilli hasn't stepped through the ropes since that draw eleven months ago, so both men are shaking off the same layoff.

The Domino Effect

Here's why Martinez's callout isn't just noise. If he beats Plantic and holds onto his interim status, he stays the WBC's mandatory challenger. That means the winner of Mbilli-Canelo could soon be ordered to fight him — no negotiation required. Martinez doesn't have to talk his way into a big fight; he just has to keep winning and let the sanctioning body do the rest.

So the order of operations is simple. Beat Plantic this weekend. Watch Riyadh on Halloween. Then wait for the phone to ring. For a fighter chasing the biggest names in the division, that's a cleaner path than most contenders ever get.