Terence Crawford isn’t the only fighter in trainer Brian “BoMac” McIntyre’s stable with a potential career-defining fight taking place on Sept. 13.

Lester Martinez will face the most significant test of his career when he takes on Christian Mbilli for his interim super middleweight at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The fight will feature on the undercard of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs Crawford on Netflix. With the two dynamic power punchers looking to cement their place in a loaded 168-pound division, McIntyre believes Martinez vs. Mbilli will live up to the billing and that his fighter will pull away late.

“It’s going to be a war,” McIntyre told The Ring. “Lester gets stronger every round going into the later rounds, and that’s where Mbilli is going to [expletive]. They got a quick ass start, [but] can you sustain that start through the whole 36 minutes?”

Martinez (19-0, 16 KOs) is coming off a fourth-round knockout of previously unbeaten Joeshon James (9-1-2, 5 KOs) on March 22. The 29-year-old Guatemalan contender has only fought beyond the fourth round four times in his career and has notched a knockout or stoppage victory in five of his last seven fights.

Martinez, who is ranked No. 3 by the WBA, No. 7 by the WBC and No. 15 by the WBO, was slated to return on July 12 to face Pierre Hubert Dibombe (22-2-1, 12 KOs), but withdrew due to migraines.

Mbilli (29-0, 24 KOs) has long been a contender in the super middleweight division and has fought most of his career in or around his adopted home of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In his last fight, the physically imposing pressure fighter notched the interim WBC super middleweight title with a first-round stoppage of longtime contender Maciej Sulecki (33-4, 13 KOs). One fight prior, Mbilli, 30, coasted to a one-sided unanimous decision victory in August 2024 over Sergiy Derevyenchenko (16-6, 11 KOs), who fought for a middleweight world title three times between 2018 and 2020.

For Mbilli and Martinez, the Canelo vs. Crawford undercard is the perfect platform for the winner to stake their claim as the next top guy at super middleweight and their styles could set the stage for them to steal the show. With Martinez largely flying under the radar up to this point, McIntyre believes his fighter is in a great spot entering his toughest fight to date.

“Lester ain’t no joke,” McIntyre said. “That [expletive] gets stronger as the rounds go.

He added: “We’re the underdog. That’s great. I love it. It’s good for the fighter.”