By Dan Ambrose: Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) says he has the style to defeat IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) when the two share the ring together on May 5 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Martirosyan was named as GGG’s replacement opponent for earlier on Wednesday for their fight on HBO World Championship Boxing. Martirosyan is the replacement for Saul Canelo Alvarez, who was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Wednesday at their hearing for his two positive tests for clenbuterol. Martirosyan is viewed as the sacrificial lamb being led to the slaughter for the Golovkin fight.
”Styles make fights. I’ve got the right style to beat him,” Martirosyan said to ES News Reporting.
The sluggers that Martirosyan has done well against in the past are Willie Nelson, Saul Roman, and Bladimir Hernandez Cazares.
Martirosyan has fought for world titles twice in the past and he’s failed both times in losses to Demetrius Andrade and Erislandy Lara. Martirosyan is 0-2 in fighting for titles on the world stage, and now he’s about to fight a guy that would likely knockout both of those fighters. We don’t know for sure whether Golovkin would beat Lara and Andrade, but I think he would have a very good chance of winning as long as he didn’t do something crazy like trying to box them like he did against Canelo and Daniel Jacobs. The same goes for Golovkin’s fight against Martirosyan. If GGG tries to box for 12 rounds against Martirosyan, he’s going to give him his best chance of winning the fight, because he’s a good boxer when he’s facing someone that stays on the outside and doesn’t push a fast pace.
Canelo, 27, pulled out of the Golovkin fight two weeks ago. Canelo didn’t bother standing around and waiting for the Nevada State Athletic Commission to suspend him. He pulled out of the fight well ahead of his hearing with the Commission on April 18. Hopefully Canelo doesn’t test positive for clenbuterol again in the lead up to the September fight with Golovkin, because that would be a real shame if two of GGG’s fights were wiped out due to contaminated meat.
“Vanes Martirosyan is now the most important fight of my career,” Golovkin said. ”He respects me and I am training hard to defend my titles against him. I’m happy to be back on HBO and to fight at StubHub Center because they have great boxing fans. I’ll give my fans another great drama show.”
The reason why Golovkin is saying Martirosyan is the biggest fight of his career is because he stands between him and his big money rematch with Canelo Alvarez on September 15. Golovkin may get the biggest payday of his career if the fight generates more PPV buys on HBO than their previous one last September. That fight pulled in well over 1 million buys.
GGG is a big-ticket seller when he’s fighting in Southern California, and that’s precisely why he moved his fight from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada to Southern California.
Golovkin wants to go back to knocking out his opponents, because he found out the hard way what can happen when he fails. GGG and Canelo fought a 12 round draw last September. And while the boxing fans believed that Golovkin deserved the decision, it doesn’t matter what they felt, because the Nevada State Athletic Commission assigned judges saw the fight as a draw, and they’re he only ones that count.
“Gennady has had such a fantastic training camp in Big Bear, it would not be fair to waste it,” said Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez.“Gennady is going to fight on Cinco de Mayo as just a true Mexican style fighter, and I cannot wait for him to get into the ring.”
Golovkin, 36, will be taking the suspended Canelo’s Cinco de Mayo date from him on May 5, and he’ll be looking to win over a lot of boxing fans celebrating the holiday by battling with his Mexican style of fighting. Golovkin says Canelo didn’t fight with the real Mexican style last September. He says he just ran around the ring trying to survive. Sanchez says Canelo entered the ring a Mexican against Golovkin, and he left the ring as Floyd Mayweather Jr. In other words, Canelo boxed for most of the fight rather than trying to fight with GGG. Mayweather stood in the picket for most of his fights in the second half of his career. He was willing to slug with his opponents.
Martirosyan hasn’t fought in over 2 years, and he’s been hurt before. He’s lost to Erislandy Lara and Demetrius Andrade. He’s suffered bad cuts. The time out of the ring and his defeats to Lara and Jermell Charlo make Martirosyan look undeserving to the extreme.
“I’ve been training and I’m in great condition,” said Martirosyan. “When they asked me if I would take this fight, I said yes.”
Martirosyan didn’t have any other big fight options, so it was a no-brainer for him to accept it. But with that said, he could be a problem for Golovkin is he’s able to get him in a boxing match instead of a slugging match. Golovkin is not a good enough boxer to beat all of the top fighters in the sport. Unless GGG goes back to his old style of slugging, he could wind up getting beaten by Martirosyan or made to look bad. It’s not smart for Golovkin to continue to try and box guys, because it doesn’t always work out.
”It’s a good card for Cinco de Mayo. The Armenians will crowd the place,” Martirosyan said. ”I have many Mexican fans too. I believe in my heart that I am going to defeat him because he has never fought against someone with my style.”
We don’t know how many fans Martirosyan will bring in, but the fight will likely sellout due to Golovkin’s high degree of popularity in Southern California. If Golovkin can sellout an arena fighting the likes of Dominic Wade in Los Angeles, then there’s a very good chance he can do the same thing in fighting Martirosyan.