WBC orders an 154 eliminator between Lara and Martirosyan

By Boxing News - 04/23/2012 - Comments

By Allan Fox: The World Boxing Council president Jose Sulaiman ordered an 154 pound eliminator bout between #1 WBC Vanes Martirosyan (32-0, 20 KO’s) and #3 WBC Erislandy Lara (16-1-1, 11 KO’s). The winner of the Lara-Martirosyan fight will be the mandatory challenger of the May 5th clash between WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez and 40-year-old challenger Shane Mosley.

You have to figure that Alvarez will be the last man standing in that bout, but I’d be frankly highly surprised if Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for Alvarez, allow him to fight Martirosyan or Lara, because Alvarez has been shielded from quality opposition as if he’s a contender rather than a champion.

Martirosyan and Lara have 30 days to put together a fight. However, if they can’t come to terms for a fight then it will go to purse bid.

Top Rank president Bob Arum reportedly isn’t too happy about his fighter Martirosyan having to fight in an eliminator to get a shot against the Alvarez-Mosley winner, saying to RingTV “It’s ludicrous. Martirosyan has fought about four eliminators. So this is nonsense piled upon nonsense. This is absolutely nuts, what they’re doing.”

Martirosyan is a good fighter. However, he’s faced weak opposition pretty much his entire 7-year pro career and even now, he’s still facing journeyman opposition instead of true contenders. I would be very, very surprised if Arum agrees to letting Martirosyan fight Lara, because it’s such a huge jump up from the guys that Arum has been spoon feeding Martirosyan in recent years. My guess is he’ll ignore the eliminator and no fight will happen between them. I can see Martirosyan becoming the mandatory for Alvarez without having to take the Lara fight. That’s how I see this playing out.

Lara is a good fighter and has come off of two impressive fights against Paul Williams and Ronald Hearns. Lara was beaten by Williams in a controversial 12 round decision last July, but he came back with an impressive 1st round knockout win over Hearns last Friday. Lara is still beatable, and I can see Alvarez having too much power for him. If Lara and Martirosyan fight, Lara will take it. But he probably won’t get the chance because I see Arum not letting Martirosyan take the fight with Lara because of the risk involved.



Comments are closed.