SOUTH GATE, California \u2013 With names like Canelo Alvarez and Naoya Inoue and one of the sport\u2019s top prizes possibly looming, the ramifications of the August 29 ProBoxTV main card that counts Lester Martinez, Najee Lopez and Ramon Cardenas on it are immense.<\/p>\n
\u2013 By defeating fellow ranked 168lbs opponent Luka Plantic at Los Angeles\u2019 Galen Center, Guatemala\u2019s WBC interim super-middleweight champion Martinez, 20-0-1 (16 KOs), can put himself in prime position for a showdown versus the winner of new WBC champion Christian Mbilli\u2019s first title defense on October 31, versus four-division champion Alvarez.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Should Texas\u2019 Cardenas, 27-2 (15 KOs), defeat Colombia\u2019s Leonardo Carrillo, 20-1-1 (9 KOs), in their super-bantamweight scrap, Cardenas holds an ideal position as No. 2 WBC and WBA fighter to keep alive his bid for a rematch with Inoue after knocking down the undisputed champion in an all-action bout last year.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And after winning a fight-of-the-year battle versus Manuel Gallegos in March, Georgia\u2019s Lopez, 16-0 (13 KOs), returns to the fire of unbeaten Colombian power puncher Juan Carrillo, 15-0 (11 KOs), in a co-main event expected to be a repeat firefight for the WBA\u2019s No. 4-ranked light-heavyweight.<\/p>\n
In the midst of training camp under Manny Robles last week just outside Los Angeles, Cardenas sized up the card and its mighty repercussions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the ProBox recipe of building a fighter: They want fighters who are not scared of anybody,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re in the sport for: to fight anybody. We\u2019re going to see who\u2019s the stronger, tougher guy. ProBox is building its [brand] well, to put up tests and more tests, and if he wins, you keep graduating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Things are most consequential for Martinez, the 30-year-old cornered by former trainer of the year Brian \u201cBoMac\u201d McIntyre and aided in training by the now-retired September conqueror of Alvarez, unbeaten, five-division champion Terence Crawford.<\/p>\n
Although the WBC has previously failed to force some of its champions, notably Alvarez, from fighting the interim titlist, Martinez would be certainly qualified for the full title shot by defeating Plantic, 13-0 (10 KOs), after fighting Mbilli to a highly entertaining draw on the Alvarez-Crawford main card.<\/p>\n
Cardenas said fighting during the weekend of a huge Guatemalan festival in Los Angeles after last year\u2019s stadium card and then a packed house for a March victory confirms Marttinez\u2019s rising popularity.<\/p>\n
He \u201cjust needs to be Lester Martinez \u2026 I\u2019ve seen him fight a couple times. He\u2019s a bad dude,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cA fight with him and Canelo would be fireworks, 100 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis [September] fight with Mbilli was good. Now just imagine him with Canelo. Two fighters who\u2019ll go toe to toe. Lester just needs to be Lester.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
While there\u2019s been speculation Mexico\u2019s Alvarez 63-3-2 will avoid Martinez as he did current cruiserweight-light-heavyweight champion David Benavidez, Cardenas said he\u2019s hopeful that would not happen should both win their next bouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say because the Canelo I grew up watching fought everybody \u2013 Golovkin, [Miguel] Cotto, [Floyd] Mayweather, [Erislandy] Lara.Everybody who was anybody.<\/p>\n
\u201cLester\u2019s a somebody now, so why not? Ultimately, not to be disrespectful, but it\u2019s not like [Alvarez] is undefeated. He\u2019s lost. That\u2019s the whole point of it. He\u2019s lost along the way. He\u2019s taken those challenges and risks, so why not take another with Lester Martinez?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The act of returning to another rugged bout by Lopez in the co-main event is a revelation of the Puerto Rican\u2019s fighting character, Cardenas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lopez already displayed his heart by rising from a seventh-round knockdown to stop Gallegos in the eighth round of ProBoxTV\u2019s March 13 main event in Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt says a lot. Now, [Lopez] is going to be in line for a title shot by winning this fight,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cLots of character, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cardenas knows the same exists within Japan\u2019s unbeaten four-division champion Inoue, who arose from a second-round knockdown at the hands of Cardenas last year and stopped him in the eighth round at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a competitor, I want to fight him again because I know there were a lot of things in the first fight that went wrong for me, in the sense there were a lot of things I know I can do better,\u201d Cardenas said of Inoue.<\/p>\n
For now, Cardenas said he had no choice to remain busy with the fight against Carrillo as Inoue weighs whether to pursue a fight against three-division champion Jesse \u201cBam\u201d Rodriguez or move to featherweight, where champions Rafael Espinoza, Brandon Figueroa, Angelo Leo and Bruce \u201cShuShu\u201d Carrington reside.<\/p>\n
\u201dIn all reality, I\u2019m blessed to be in this position,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cWhen I was younger, I was crying to be in this position and now that I\u2019m here, I\u2019m just waiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cInoue deserves to do whatever he wants. He earned his spot, and now it\u2019s like a Floyd Mayweather position where Floyd would fight whoever he wants, and if you got to fight him, you hit the jackpot. It\u2019s the same thing now. And I know [if] he makes his move \u2013 to move up a division to featherweight \u2013 I\u2019ll be right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cardenas said he\u2019s most hopeful Inoue remains at 122lbs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a fan, I would like to see him move up to featherweight and test himself there. There\u2019s some heavy hitters in the featherweight division \u2013 Espinoza, Figueroa, Leo,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cAs a competitor, give me another shot. I\u2019m willing to go to the Tokyo Dome. That\u2019s honestly what I would want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cardenas could be strongly positioned to next meet top-ranked WBC contender Junto Nakatani of Japan after Inoue defeated him earlier this year. Cardenas and Nakatani have previously sparred together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in the sport to fight the best. No ill will, [we\u2019d fight] just because we\u2019re competitors,\u201d Cardenas said.\u201dHe\u2019s one of the best. I would love to fight him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another remarkable scenario could exist if Rodriguez, who also hails from San Antonio, Texas, with Cardenas, defeats Inoue. Cardenas has known Rodriguez since \u201cBam\u201d was a 10-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf [Rodriguez is] the champion, and that\u2019s the guy we\u2019ve got to take on, it is what it is,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cI personally wouldn\u2019t want to because I\u2019ve known him [so long], and I\u2019ve always said, \u2018There\u2019s so many other people we can fight.\u2019 I want the belt, though.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Cardenas agreed the bout would sell out San Antonio\u2019s Alamodome.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he were to win, let\u2019s do it,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cIf the money and everything makes sense, I would talk to him: \u2018You\u2019re a champion. I want to be a champion. Let\u2019s do what we gotta do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTH GATE, California \u2013 With names like Canelo Alvarez and Naoya Inoue and one of the sport\u2019s top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":862272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-862271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}