By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan (32-0, 20 KO’s) will be taking an easy 10 round bout against little known 33-year-old Ryan Davis (24-9-3, 9 KO’s) on June 16th on the undercard of the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Andy Lee clash at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.

Martirosyan, #2 WBO, #3 WBC, #10 IBF, had the option of facing highly ranked contender Erislandy Lara in a WBC 154 pound title eliminator but turned it down, and instead will be facing Davis. It’s unclear what the 26-year-old Martirosyan is waiting for, because last year he turned down a fight against then number #1 World Boxing Council ranked junior middleweight contender Alfredo Angulo. Instead of facing Angulo last year, Martirosyan fought and defeated the following B level fighters Bladimir Hernandez, Saul Roman and Richard Gutierrez.

Martirosyan has the ranking to fight for a title, but seems to be holding off for some reason. Perhaps his handlers are waiting for him to get a shot against WBO champion Zauerbek Baysangurov, who is incredibly vulnerable and an easy mark for a fighter like Martirosyan – and number of other top contenders. But Martirosyan needs to step it up at some point because he’s got 32 wins and no losses on his resume. I don’t know that he’s going to get much better at this point. He seems to be kind of stagnating rather than progressing as a fighter.

The high point in Martirosyan’s career was when he defeated formerly highly hyped fighter Joe Greene by a 10 round decision in June 2010. If Martirosyan had then turned around and fought for a world title after that fight it would have been perfect him. Instead, we’ve seen Martirosyan fight Hernandez, Roman, Gutierrez and most recently 41-year-old Troy Lowry in mismatches. Now, Martirosyan is about to fight another mismatch this time against Ryan Davis. What’s the point? Martirosyan needs to step it up and start facing quality opposition already. If he doesn’t have the talent to make it, he needs to find out sooner rather than later, because he can then retire and pick up a trade.