Errol Spence Jr. expects the undefeated lightweight contender he promotes to have to take a comparable path to the one Spence traveled toward his first title shot.

Spence sees Frank Martin as a high-risk opponent that most top lightweights would just as soon avoid. If the top boxers in Martin’s division won’t willingly fight him, much the way established welterweights wouldn’t fight Spence on his way up, Spence suspects that the undefeated southpaw from Indianapolis will have to become a mandatory challenger for one of the four major sanctioning organizations to get his championship chance.

“Most likely, he’s probably gonna have to be a mandatory to get a title fight,” Spence told BoxingScene.com following Martin’s recent 10th-round, technical-knockout victory over Jackson Marinez at Alamodome. “It’s gonna be hard, but you’ve gotta get yourself in position to be the mandatory, like what I did. He gotta beat not the opponents at the top, but the opponents just below the top contenders, beat those guys and beat ‘em in impressive fashion, where there’s a demand for him to fight the guys who won the world titles and stuff like that, the guys with the big names. It’s gonna be difficult, but it’s, you know, something that’s been done numerous times. I’ve done it and other different fighters done it, so it’s something that can definitely be done.”

Spence, then 27, capitalized five years ago on becoming the IBF’s mandatory challenger for its welterweight champion, Kell Brook. The strong southpaw from DeSoto, Texas dropped Brook twice, fractured his left orbital bone and stopped him in the 11th round of their May 2017 bout at Bramall Lane, a soccer stadium in Brook’s hometown of Sheffield, England.

The 32-year-old Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) has since won the WBC and WBA welterweight titles. He also appears headed toward the biggest fight of his career – a full 147-pound title unification showdown with WBO champ Terence Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs).

Martin, meanwhile, is ranked only by the WBA, which lists him 14th among its 135-pound contenders for one of undefeated, undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney’s four titles. His victory over the Dominican Republic’s Marinez (19-3, 7 KOs) is the most noteworthy win of Martin’s four-year pro career, but Spence seeks improvement from the 27-year-old Martin (16-0, 12 KOs), who, like Spence, is trained by Derrick James.

“I thought he looked good,” said Spence, who suggested during a post-fight press conference that Rolando Romero should fight Martin next. “He started out a little bit slow, but I feel like he was calculating and making sure his shots was just on point. He could’ve been a little bit more active, but he was just making sure, you know, everything was precise and right. That’s what him and Derrick have been working on in the gym. I feel like he was breaking him down.

“And once he broke him down, he got him tired, the punches were affecting him a lot more and he was able to get the stoppage. So, I think he looked good. He looked real sharp, but like he said, there’s always room for improvement. So, he’s definitely gotta get back in the gym and improve on different things.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.