Julio Cesar Martinez will face a new opponent on December 3.

Martinez, the Ring Magazine No. 1-ranked flyweight, will now defend his WBC flyweight title against Samuel Carmona at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, Matchroom Boxing announced Saturday night. The 12-round bout will precede the main event bout between Ring Magazine junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez.

Both fights will stream live on DAZN (8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT).

Carmona replaces McWilliams Arroyo, who withdrew from the rematch against Martinez a few weeks ago, citing an undisclosed injury suffered during training camp. Arroyo announced his retirement from the sport but later clarified he will retire after facing Martinez in a fight that has seen numerous postponements.

“I’m excited to be getting back in the ring and defending my WBC belt again,” said Martinez. “It’s unfortunate the Arroyo rematch is not happening, but it’s a huge chance for Samuel and he’s young and hungry, so you know he will bring everything [that] night.”

Martinez (18-2, 14 knockouts), who resides in Mexico City, last fought on March 5, losing by unanimous decision to Gonzalez. Martinez moved up in weight to face Gonzalez, stepping in as a replacement after Estrada backed out of the fight due to testing positive for COVID-19.

In his previous fight on November 19 of last year, which was his last title defense, Martinez fought to a no-contest against Arroyo after a ringside physician deemed Arroyo was not able to continue after suffering a cut in an accidental clash of heads. Both fighters were dropped in the opening round and Arroyo was knocked down again in the second round before the fight was stopped one second into the third round.

The 27-year-old will be attempting to make the fifth defense of the WBC title he won in December 2019 by stopping Cristofer Rosales of Nicaragua in the ninth round.

Carmona (8-0, 4 KOs), who resides in Las Palmas on the Canary Islands, will take a significant step up in opposition against Martinez. The 2016 Olympian who represented Spain has fought two 10-round fights thus far in his career.

The 26-year-old defeated journeyman Moises Mojica by unanimous decision in his last bout on October 29. Less than seven months before the victory over Mojica, Carmona defeated Joel Cordova by unanimous decision, whom Martinez stopped on June 26 of last year.

Matchroom Boxing also announced two compelling fights and the quick turnaround of an Olympian that will round out the DAZN stream on December 3.

Unbeaten flyweight Joselito Velasquez (15-0-1, 10 KOs) will square off against Rosales in a 10-round bout.

Velasquez, who is originally from Oaxaca, Mexico and now resides in the Los Angeles suburb of West Covina, stopped Colombia’s Jose Soto in his last bout on May 7 as part of the Dmitry Bivol-Canelo Alvarez undercard.

Rosales (34-6, 21 KOs) has won his five of his last six fights since his loss to Martinez, with the lone blemish coming at the hands of Angel Ayala of Mexico, who is currently ranked No. 4 by The Ring.

Super middleweight Diego Pacheco (16-0, 13 KOs) of South Los Angeles will face Timur Kerefov (13-0, 7 KOs), who is originally from Shalushka, Russia, and now resides in Detroit, in a 10-round bout.

Beatriz Ferreira (1-0) of Brazil will return to action against an opponent to be determined. The 2020 Olympic silver medalist defeated Taynna Cardoso by decision this past Saturday night.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected]

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