By Manuel Perez: Undefeated light middleweight prospect Vanes Martirosyan (21-0, 13 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Michael Medina (18-1, 14 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Buffalo Bill’s Star Arena, in Primm, Nevada. The final judges’ scores were 100-90, 97-93 and 98-92. Martirosyan, 22, a former 2004 Olympian for the U.S., had a much tougher time then the final scores would have you believe, as many of the early rounds were incredibly close due to Medina nailing Martirosyan often with right hands to the head and lefts to the body. However, by the sixth round Martirosyan seemed to increase the power in his shots and fight with much more energy than he did in the first half of the fight and dominate the rest of the way over Medina.
Martirosyan focused on using his jab and moving in the first round, snapping off his jab into the face of Medina. There was little action other than the two fighters trading jabs with one another. Martirosyan controlled the second round, using hard combinations and jabs against the wary Medina, who looked as if he was nervous about getting hit with one of Martirosyan’s big power punches.
Martirosyan’s movement in the round, though, seemed to take away some of his power, preventing him from sitting down on his shots the way he used to do. Medina fought well in the 3rd round, hitting Martirosyan with some big right hands that snapped his head back. Martirosyan fought back well but was unable to land anything nearly as hard as the right hands that Medina hit him with.
The action was close in the fourth round, with Martirosyan landing more often but Medina continuing to hit him with clean right hands to the head. Martirosyan’s defense was pretty awful, even though he was moving often and trying his hardest to duck shots thrown at him. However, he just didn’t show any ability to block shots with his hands. The round ended up probably going to Martirosyan because he landed a little more, but he wasn’t looking particularly impressive for a former Olympian.
Martirosyan began fighting stronger in the 5th round, looking as if he had finally warmed up and was hitting Medina with bigger shots. At the same time, Medina looked uncomfortable with the big shots he was getting hit with and began moving more to avoid getting hit as often. In the 6th round, Medina started looking slightly haggard and weaker. Martirosyan landed some hard left hands to the head and midsection. Medina fought hard in the last thirty seconds of the round, charging after Martirosyan and hitting him with a good right hand. However, Medina’s aggression backfired on him when he ran into a big left hand near the end of the round.
In rounds seven though ten, Martirosyan totally dominated the action, hitting Medina with big left hands to the head and body repeatedly. Medina still fought well but he was clearly outclassed by Martirosyan who looked even more powerful than he did at the start of the fight. Instead of getting weaker as the rounds progressed, Martirosyan seemed to get stronger with every round, hitting harder and harder. He still seemed to rob his own power by moving much, however.
Vanes, 22, a fighter known for having one-punch power in both hands, but one that has been very hittable at times. His evolving style is more boxing oriented rather than the pure slugger he was at the beginning stages of his career. His new style is still a work in progress, but he is showing much more head and body movement than he did at the start of his career. However, Martirosyan still gets hit much too often for his own good and still needs a lot of work on his defense before he should even be considered to be put in with good fighters like James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo, two of the better fighters in the light middleweight division.
Martirosyan has the power to take out most of his opponents in the first few rounds, but because he’s been focusing on boxing now rather than just pure slugging, his recent opponents have been able stick around a lot longer than they would have if they had faced Martirosyan a little over a year ago. As much as I like Medina, he wouldn’t have made it beyond two rounds with Martirosyan last year.