Brian ‘BoMac McIntyre, the boxing coach who helped Terence Crawford achieve his greatness, is preparing another super middleweight for legendary status, he said.
Crawford won world titles across five weight classes, including the grand finale of his career in which he went to the 168-pound division and took all of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s championships with a history-rewriting performance.
The American fighter retired shortly after but for his trainer, McIntyre, the work continues as he remains by Lester Martinez’s side whom, he said, has been developing at a tremendous clip over the last year, or so.
Following an impressive amateur career in which he collected gold medals at various competitions, defeating Carlos Adames, Alberto Puello, and Alberto Palmetta, among others, Martinez turned pro in 2019 and finished Ricardo Mayorga by second-round knockout in his very first fight, and has a 19-0-1 record now with 16 KOs.
For McIntyre, the best work — the legacy-defining performances, the belt-collecting — lay ahead.
“I think one thing about Lester’s style is that he’s relentless,” McIntyre said Friday, ahead of Martinez’s next fight, against Immanuwel Aleem atop a ProBox TV card at the National Orange Show Event Center in San Bernardino, California, on March 21. “He’s constantly punching, coming forward, real tricky with his punches.”
“And he reminds me of Marvin Hagler for the type of attitude that he has and will that he has to win.”
The one time Martinez didn’t get the nod, a draw that McIntyre disputes, was against Christian Mbilli on the Crawford-Canelo undercard. It was the last time Martinez has boxed. “[That] fight … showed me that he had the will to win and he always talked about it in camp. ‘Coach, I’m going to win, I’m going to be a champion’.
“When he fought Mbilli, he took the pressure, punches, the will but towards the end I favored Lester because he took his will, even if he got a draw, he won the boxing community and showed he has the will to win.
“The Lester from a year ago is a completely different person and he understands the game a little bit more, and the different types of fighters he’s fighting, the level of the game, I know he understands that and he’s on top of the division and he wants to conquer.
“He wants to be the undisputed champion so watch out for him,” McIntyre finished. “That’s another legend in the making.”
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