By Dan Ambrose: In looking at the Boxrec earlier today, I noticed that unbeaten junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan (28-0, 17 KO’s) is scheduled to fight unbeaten former Cuban national champion Erislandy Lara (13-0, 8 KO’s) on December 4th at the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California. I find this kind of hard to believe because I can’t imagine that Martirosyan’s trainer Freddie Roach would ever agree to match Martirosyan against a quality fighter like Lara. Roach says that he would never match one of his fighters against someone he thinks they don’t have a good chance of beating.
This is why I think Boxrec is wrong about Martirosyan facing Lara. Martirosyan has been busy calling out 39-year-old Shane Mosley recently with no luck. Mosley isn’t interested in fighting Martirosyan because he’s not known to casual boxing fans and there would be no money in a fight with him. Martirosyan’s management has reportedly been looking to line him up for a title shot against World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior middleweight Sergeii Dzinziruk. I think that fight is almost as bad as matching Martirosyan against Lara. I see Dzinziruk boxing Martirosyan’s ears off if they get this fight. Dzinziruk is a really schooled fighter and looks to be a lot more technically skilled compared to Martirosyan.
If Martirosyan does end up facing Lara, I wouldn’t give him anymore than a puncher’s chance at beating the Cuban. Lara just looks a lot more athletic and skilled compared to Martirosyan. I think Martirosyan has good power, but he wastes it by running around the ring and clinching all the time. He used to be an entertaining fighter a couple of years ago, but he’s become really boring to watch as Roach has turned him into more of a boxer.
It’s unclear who Martirosyan will be fighting on 12/4. Boxing fans want to see Martirosyan fight Lara. However, Roach likely won’t let that fight happen knowing that Martirosyan would be in deep trouble against Lara.
Comments are closed.