Yuberjen Martínez will get the biggest professional fight of his career on Saturday, November 14, 2026, when he faces Anthony Olascuaga for the OMB world flyweight title at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. For the 28-year-old Colombian, it is the kind of night that has been built one knockout at a time.
People searching his name now are finding a boxer who turned an Olympic run into a second act and who has kept winning since entering the paid ranks. Martínez took silver at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, then reached the quarterfinals in Tokio 2020, where he fought Ryomei Tanaka. Long before that, Jorge Julio Rocha was the last Colombian mentioned in this story to leave the Olympic ring with a medal, taking bronze in Seoul 1988.
Martínez made his professional debut in July 2022 and beat Yeison Hernández by knockout. He then spent a year without boxing gloves after that first win because he could not find a way to keep his career moving. Even so, he returned to the ring and has since won six more fights, all by knockout. In May 2026, he stopped Ángel Bethancourt in the eighth round, handing the OMB Latino flyweight titleholder his first loss and underlining why this title shot arrived now.
The path to this point says as much about Martínez as the record does. He has said he grew up with only two fists and two gloves, and that he worked in banana plantations, sold coconut nougat and repaired bicycles while young. He also said there came a point when he grew tired of so much injustice and so much knocking on doors without one opening. Adriana López, his wife, helped keep the professional dream alive during that stretch, when the opportunities were not there and the gloves were put away.
That is the contradiction sitting inside Saturday’s bout: Martínez is arriving as a rising title challenger, but he did not rise through a smooth system. He had to wait, work and keep fighting for a chance that may have seemed far away after his debut. Now he gets it against Olascuaga, and the result will decide whether his comeback story turns into a championship one.
Related coverage: Anthony Olascuaga to defend WBO flyweight title against Yuberjen Martinez Saturday.
