By Sean McDaniel: #1 WBC 154 pound contender Vanes Martirosyan (32-0, 20 KO’s) has essentially thrown away any chance of him getting a title shot against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez after reportedly turning down a World Boxing Council 154 pound final eliminator bout against #3 contender Erislandy Lara.

This isn’t the first time that the 26-year-old Martirosyan has decided to bypass an eliminator bout. The WBC ordered a match last year between then #1 WBC contender Alfredo Angulo and Martirosyan for the WBC mandatory contender spot. However, Martirosyan said no to that fight as well. The WBC then later gave Martirosyan a second chance by ordering a bout between James Kirkland and Martirosyan. The possibility of that fight taking place went down the drain, if there ever was a chance, when Kirkland injured his shoulder in his bout with Carlos Molina. With Kirkland out of action, the WBC replaced him with the Cuban Lara. However, Martirosyan doesn’t want that fight either.

Where Martirosyan goes from here is unknown. He’s fighting on the undercard of the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Andy Lee card on June 16th at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. It’s not likely that a quality opponent will be found in the next month to face Martirosyan, and it’s already been ages since he fought a halfway decent fighter. Martirosyan has been a pro for the past seven years and the best opponents he’s faced are as follows: Kassim Ouma, Joe Green. Saul Roman, Andrey Tsurkan, Billy Lyell and Michael Medina. Martirosyan was knocked down by Ouma and appeared to lose the fight despite getting a controversial 10 round decision in January 2010.

With the opportunity lost to some day fight for the WBC strap, Martirosyan will have to go after the other junior middleweight champions Cornelius Bundrage, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Austin Trout, and Zaurbek Baysangurov. Mayweather won’t bother wasting time fighting Martirosyan because he’s done zero in terms of facing quality opposition.

By not taking on guys like Lara and Alfredo Angulo, Martirosyan has basically shot himself in the foot by stunting his own career because he’s not winning fans by facing 2nd 3rd tier opposition each time he fights, and his resume is badly inflated.