By Eric Thomas: Unbeaten junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan (32-0, 20 KO’s) is hoping his promoter Bob Arum will set him up with a title shot against IBF junior middleweight champion Cornelius Bundrage (31-4, 18 KO’s) in 2012. Martirosyan, #1 WBC, #4 WBO, #10 IBF, is ranked highly by three of the four sanctioning bodies, yet he’s been ignored by the champions for some reason.

Martirosyan told fighthype.com “Bob Arum promised me he would get me K9 [Bundrage] on June 9th.”

It looks like a pipe dream for Martirosyan, however, because the 38-year-old Bundrage is already scheduled to fight a rematch with Cory Spinks on June 23rd at the Seminole Hard Rock and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida. That would obviously rule out Bundrage being available to fight Martirosyan on the 9th of June. However, Martirosyan could get a title shot later on in the year if Arum is at all serious about wanting to put him in with Bundrage. If not, then Martirosyan will have to continue to wait his turn for one of the champions to give him a fight.

Martirosyan would like nothing better than to face WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez in 2012 or 2013. The 21-year-old Alvarez is obviously the number #1 choice for Martirosyan due to his big name and popularity among boxing fans. However, Alvarez likely won’t willingly accept a fight against Martirosyan unless his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are on board with it, and they’re not going to be okay with a fight between their fighter Alvarez and the older, Top Rank promoted 25-year-old Martirosyan. That fight isn’t likely going to happen until the World Boxing Council force it to happen, and even then you can’t be sure. Alvarez is being groomed for big things in boxing and Martirosyan may or may not be good enough to spoil his big plans. A fight between Martirosyan probably won’t happen anytime soon, so Martirosyan is better off focusing on Bundrage.