By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan (28-0, 17 KO’s) will be returning to the ring on either December 4th or December 18th, likely against fringe contender Pawel Wolak (27-1, 17 KO’s). Martirosyan, ranked #3 WBO, #5 IBF, #5 WBA and #6 WBC, is close to getting a title shot against one of the champions. However, he needs to keep winning so that he can get a big money fight. Martirosyan was holding out with the hope of facing fellow Top Rank World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto on December 4th.

However, Cotto decided not to take the fight because he wants to go after mainly big named opponents and Martirosyan is still mostly an obscure fighter at this point in his still young boxing career. Martirosyan recently defeated Joe Greene in a one-sided 10 round decision on June 5th at Yankee Stadium. It was a good performance from Martirosyan. It was the perfect opponent for him to beat and look good against.

Wolak, 29, is another fighter that Martirosyan will likely beat. Wolak isn’t a big puncher and has slow hand speed. Martirosyan should beat Wolak. However, there’s a lot of fighters in the junior middleweight division that would likely beat Martirosyan if given the chance, like Alfredo Angulo, Sergeii Dzinziruk, Yuri Foreman, Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Kermit Cintron, Lucas Konecny, and Fernando Guerrero. Those fighters are probably beyond Martirosyan’s talent level.

Martirosyan’s limitations as a fighter was pretty much exposed when he faced journeyman Kassim Ouma in January, and ended up winning by a controversial 10 round decision. Although Martirosyan’s trainer Freddie Roach thinks that he’s better than Cotto, but Roach has been wrong before and he’ll be wrong again. Roach also thinks Amir Khan and is the future of boxing.