(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Dan Ambrose: WBC Silver junior middleweight champion Vanes Martirosyan (32-0, 20 KO’s) retained his World Boxing Council title on Saturday night, stopping his badly over-matched 41-year-old challenger Troy Lowry (28-12, 17 KO’s) in the 3rd round of a scheduled 10 round bout on the undercard of the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Marco Antonio Rubio bout at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

Martirosyan, 25, knocked the journeyman Lowry down twice in the fight, once in the 1st with a left to the midsection, and the final time in the 3rd with a chopping right to the head, to get a 3rd round TKO stoppage.

Lowry came into the fight having lost 10 out of his last 14 fights, including three out of his last four fights. It’s more than sad that Martirosyan, ranked #1 WBC, #4 WBO, #12 IBF, is still fighting this caliber of a fighter after seven years as a pro. It looks as if his promoters just aren’t comfortable with matching him against better fighters for some reason. Having seen Martirosyan beat Kassim Ouma by a questionable decision in January 2010, and also seen his unimpressive recent outing against Saul Roman last June, I can’t say I’m all that surprised. Martirosyan’s trainer Freddie Roach hasn’t made a lot of progress with teaching him things. Martirosyan can punch but he gets hit cleanly and is very vulnerable on defense. He does well against the Lowry types, but struggles when he’s put in with a little better.

Last night, Martirosyan really tore into Lowry with left hooks and chopping right hands in the opening round. Martirosyan was coming forward throwing one right hand after another and badly telegraphing his shots. It was like he was just throwing haymakers to try and get Lowry out of there quickly instead of using his 2nd tier opponent as someone to get some rounds in against and learn some things that he’ll definitely need later on when he finally takes on someone that can actually fight.

Martirosyan put Lowry down almost immediately in the opening round, nailing him with a left to the midsection. It looked then like the fight would be quickly over but Lowry proved to have a good chin and was able to take some enormous punishment in the round.

In the 2nd round, Martirosyan teed off with mostly right hands as he blasted Lowry with one big shot after another hoping to get him out of there early. Lowry was cut on the bridge of the nose and looked a mess.

In the 3rd round, Lowry was staggering around from all the shots he was getting hit with, at one point dropping to his knees after getting hit with two solid right hands. The referee ruled it a slip but it looked legit. With the first punch after the slip, Martirosyan nailed Lowry with a huge right hand that spun him around almost knocked him down. Lowry lost his balance completely and staggered back several feel from the force of the shot. From then on, Martirosyan threw pretty much nothing but right hands. Lowry eventually fell up against the ropes and was taken out with a series of hard right hands.

I can’t say I was impressed with Martirosyan’s performance. He showed no punch variety whatsoever and was hit cleanly by Lowry whenever he tried to throw anything. Martirosyan needs to step it up because his career is being brought along even slower than Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who didn’t have the benefit of an amateur background the way that Martirosyan did.

Martirosyan is an ex-2004 Olympian for the U.S, and there’s no reason for him to be matched against this level opposition seven years into his pro career. This is the kind of opponent that Martirosyan should have fought in his first couple of fights, not after seven years as a pro. Martirosyan might need to start thinking about getting a different promoter if this is how his career is going to be wasted.