The WBC announced Wednesday night that its board of governors voted unanimously to
order an immediate rematch between Christian Mbilli and Lester Martinez.The undefeated super middleweights waged one of the most memorable bouts of 2025 on the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford undercard Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Mbilli retained his WBC interim 168-pound championship because their spectacular slugfest resulted in a split draw.
The WBC cited the inconclusive outcome and public demand as reasons for requiring an immediate rematch so quickly.
Montreal’s
Mbilli (29-0-1, 24 KOs) and Guatemala’s
Martinez (19-0-1, 16 KOs) wowed the capacity crowd by standing and trading hard shots throughout a 10-round bout Netflix streamed globally. Even though they continuously caught each other with flush punches, neither could hurt each other enough to finish their fight inside the distance.
Judge Patricia Morse Jarman scored seven rounds for Martinez, who won 97-93 on her card. Chris Migliore credited Mbilli for a 96-94 victory and Glenn Feldman scored it 95-95.
CompuBox unofficially favored Martinez, who landed 412 of 980 punches, 139 more than Mbilli (273 of 787).
Mbilli entered as
The Ring’s No. 1-ranked contender for Alvarez, who lost his Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO belts to Crawford. Martinez was not ranked in The Ring’s Top 10 prior to Saturday night.
Now that Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) has dethroned Alvarez (63-3-2, 39 KOs), the Mexican superstar is The Ring’s No. 1 contender, Cuban southpaw
Osleys Iglesias (14-0, 13 KOs) is second, Mbilli third and Martinez fourth.
Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing