By William Mackay: Unbeaten junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan (31-0, 19 KO’s) pounded out a dull 10 round unanimous decision over former welterweight contender Richard Gutierrez (26-8-1, 16 KO’s) on Saturday night at the WinStar Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma.

The final judges’ scores were 100-90, 100-90, 99-91. Martirosyan rarely attacked with any conviction and seemed more concerned with boxing on the outside, moving and not getting hit. Occasionally, Martirosyan would charge forward to throw combinations, but mostly he boxed and moved.

The performance didn’t give one any feeling that Martirosyan could handle better fighters in the division like WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez and Alfredo Angulo. Right now those two guys appear to be a cut above Martirosyan and I can’t see that changing unless Martirosyan becomes a more offensive fighter and less of a mover.

Gutierrez, 5’9”, lacked the size to land his shots against the taller 6’0” Martirosyan, and he had trouble getting the tall Armenian to stop moving long enough to land shots. The movement cut down on the opportunities for both fighters to exchange shots in particular the shorter Gutierrez.

Martirosyan landed some good right hands and lefts to the body in the 4th. That was probably his best round of the fight. Before that, Martirosyan was treating Gutierrez like he was a knockout artist and seemed to deathly afraid to throw shots.

Rounds five through nine were excruciatingly boring due to Martirosyan moving so much and not engaging. The constant movement was a lot like watching the Amir Khan fight vs. Marcos Maidana, except that Martirosyan rarely stopped to throw flurries. In the 10th, Martirosyan started the round with a flurry and it looked like for a second he was shooting for a knockout. However, he quickly went back to his safety first style of fighting after that brief bit of punching and finished the round moving in big circles as if he were trying to run out the clock.

All in all, a very, very dull performance from the number #2 ranked WBC junior middleweight contender Martirosyan. Bases on this fight I don’t give him any chance of beating Alvarez or Angulo. Those guys are too strong and have better offensive weapons. They’re not afraid to let their hands go.