By Dave Lahr: Unbeaten junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan (28-0, 17 KO’s) will be sparring with Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KO’s) this week at the Widlcard Gym, in Los Angeles, California. Martirosyan will be looking to get Pacquiao ready for his next fight against Antonio Margarito next month, but at the same time, Martirosyan wants to collect the $2000 for being the first sparring partner to knock Pacquiao down during this training camp. None of the other sparring partners have come close to knocking Pacquiao down, but then again they didn’t invite any punchers to spar with Pacquiao.

It’s easy to crow about how Pacquiao hasn’t been knocked down yet, but when your best guys are Michael Medina and Glen Tapia, what do you expect? You got to light punchers wearing 16 ounce gloves, and Pacquiao’s lovesick fans are crowing about it, as if he found a cure for cancer. Martirosyan isn’t that big of a puncher either, but I’m not surprised. They’re not going to invite a huge puncher like James Kirkland to camp to spar with Pacquiao, because there would too much potential for Pacquiao to get injured. But I still think Martirosyan has enough power to put Pacquiao down on his backside enough to collect some big bucks during the camp.

I’m guessing they’ll only give Martirosyan $2000 once and after that it’s all for free. Okay, so the trick to knocking Pacquiao down is to time him when he’s jumping in and jumping. He always does the same move every time. Juan Manuel Marquez, who arguably should have been given the decision against Pacquiao last time out when they fought in 2008, realized how vulnerable Pacquiao is when he’s jumping back to the outside. Marquez took advantage of this by nailing him with a right hand while Pacquiao was in mid jump, staggering him badly. This is all Martirosyan needs to do. All he has to do is wait on Pacquiao to jump backwards and at the exact same time, Martirosyan needs to pump him one in the jaw to send him down.

If Martirosyan can repeat this every time Pacquiao is leaping around like a little bullfrog, he’ll have Pacquiao rolling around on the canvas in pain. That will probably be the first and last time that Martirosyan is allowed to spar with Pacquiao because they won’t want the little Filipino beaten up before his fight next month. Besides, it wouldn’t look good having Pacquiao knocked around day in day out, and Roach losing money every time.