By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has put together a fight card head-lined by WBA/WBO flyweight champion Brian Viloria vs. Juan Francisco Estrada on April 6th at the Venetian Casino & Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
Also on the card will be unbeaten junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan (32-0-1, 20 KO’s) will be fighting a 10 round bout against Argentinian Javier Francisco Maciel (25-1, 18 KO’s).
This fight is a strong signal that Martirosyan’s promoters at Top Rank are positioning him to go after what many boxing fans see as the weak link in the junior middleweight division in WBO champion Zaurbek Baysangurov.
That’s a very winnable fight for Martirosyan, #1 WBO, #6 IBF, #11 WBC, who failed at beating Erislandy Lara last November in their World Boxing Council 154 pound eliminator bout. The fight was halted after the Martirosyan was cut over his left eye from an accidental head-butt in the 9th round.
The cut may have been a savior for Martirosyan at the time, because Lara was taking over the fight and making Martirosyan look really bad. If the fight had gone the distance, it would have likely ended badly for Martirosyan with him losing.
Martirosyan had the opportunity to fight Lara again in a WBC 154 lb. eliminator, but he chose to take the safer path by facing the 28-year-old Maciel instead. It’s a smart move in hindsight because Martirosyan just doesn’t match-up with Lara, and he’d have likely ended up losing that fight.
Maciel, #6 WBO, fought former WBO middleweight champion Dmitry Pirog in a world title challenge in 2011, but Maciel ended up getting beaten by a 12 round decision. He showed good power, but he wasn’t nearly busy enough to win the fight. Maciel has won his last six fights since then, stopping five of the six, albeit against weak opposition.
Also on the card will be super bantamweight Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. facing Yasutaka Ishimoto, super featherweight Roman Martinez vs. Diego Magdaleno and flyweight Milan Melindo battling Tommy Seran.
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