Martinez stops Plantic to defend WBC interim title

Lester Martinez defeats Luka Plantic in a hard-fought battle and now wants the winner of Canelo Alvarez vs. Christian Mbilli.

Lester Martinez put on a very strong performance last night, defeating Luka Plantic in the 10th round and thereby successfully defending his WBC interim title.

“We knew [Plantic] was rugged. He reminds me of one of those rugged 1970s, 1980s fighters who had no quit in them. He took everything we could give him”

said Lester Martinez's trainer Brian after the fight.

After a wild exchange of blows with many hard hits, many of which landed on the head, it was ultimately a left body shot that sent Luka Plantic to the canvas in the tenth round. He quickly got back up and smiled, presumably because he already knew who had the upper hand that evening. After another hard combination, the referee stopped the fight in the end.

With this, Lester Martinez improves his record to 21-0-1. Following this second defense of his interim title, he stated that he now wants to face the winner of the bout between Saul Alvarez and Christian Mbilli. With last night’s performance, he has definitely earned it.For Luka Plantic, however, this loss is quite disappointing, since he finally wanted to prove what he’s capable of. Besides, his performance was actually pretty good. In the first round, he started applying pressure right away and was very active. However, that changed a bit when the second round began. From that point on, it was really only Lester Martinez who was applying pressure. Lester Martinez was clearly giving Luka Plantic a hard time, and over time that took some of the fight out of him. By the tenth round, Luka Plantic’s trainer was already ready to throw in the towel, but the referee beat him to it. All in all, it was a good bout, but Luka Plantic probably didn’t meet his own expectations. One can only hope that his future looks different, as he really is an ambitious young man.

Sure, it was a well-deserved victory for Lester Martinez, but I feel really bad for Luka Plantic. I would have been so happy for him if he’d won this matchup. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to score, but maybe next time.