By Jim Dower: Tom Loeffler says Gennady Golovkin won’t be overlooking Vanes Martirosyan for a second this Saturday night when the two of them meet on HBO World Championship Boxing at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) has been given a huge opportunity to fight IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) for his titles as the replacement opponent for Saul Canelo Alvarez. Loeffler points out that if Martirosyan beats Golovkin, he’ll be at the top of the sport. No one expects Martirosyan to win, but if he does, he will set himself up some big fights. Who knows? Martirosyan could wind being the one that faces Canelo in September instead of GGG. Now that would be a surprise.
“Everybody is focused on Vanes,” GGG’s promoter Tom Loeffler said to Villianfy Media. “Nobody is underestimating him. All the West Coast media, who is familiar with Vanes, they have a tremendous amount of respect him. He’s fought the best competition. He had a draw with Lara, and he’s rated No.1 with the WBC and he’s now moving up,” Loeffler said.
Nobody has tried to punch it out with Golovkin in ages, and Martirosyan says that’s exactly what he plans on doing on Saturday night. If Martirosyan is serious, it could be interesting to see how well he does. Martirosyan has enough power to hurt Golovkin if he can catch him with a big shot early in the contest. That’s usually when Martirosyan is at his best. He’s a dangerous puncher when he’s loading up on his shots and throwing combinations.
Golovkin will need to make sure he’s got his guard up at all times if he doesn’t want to get hurt on Saturday night because Martirosyan is every bit as powerful as Daniel Jacobs and Saiul Canelo Alvarez. He might not have the hand speed that those wo fighters possess, but he does have the punching power that they do, and he has the amateur pedigree to beat GGG.
”He was actually supposed to fight Sulecki, who gave Danny Jacobs all he wanted, and he was supposed to fight Sulecki and he was favored,” Loeffler said. ”So now Vanes has got a huge opportunity to fight Triple G on May 5. He’s hungry, and he can change his entire career and be on the top of boxing if he gets a win on May 5. That’s why nobody is underestimating Martirosyan. Triple G has a huge respect for him, and he’s very familiar with him,” Loeffler said.
It would have been nice to see how Martirosyan did against Maciej Sulecki. The way that Sulecki fought Daniel Jacobs last Saturday night, Martirosyan would have had all he could handle fighting him. If Sulecki moves back down in weight, Martirosyan and him could still wind up facing each other at some point.
There are a lot of unhappy people with Golovkin fighting Martirosyan, but Loeffler had little choice but to make the fight after Canelo backed out of the fight on 3 weeks’ notice after testing positive for clenbuterol. Golovkin could have taken out Demetrius Andrade or Sergey Derevyanchenko, but those would have been perilous fights with just 3 weeks for Triple G to get ready for them. Taking high-risk fights are fine if there’s a lot of money involved or if there’s been an adequate amount of time to prepare for them. Golovkin had neither of those things going for him if he’d picked Andrade or Derevyanchenko as the replacement opponent for Canelo. Andrade is a southpaw, and those type of fighters are never easy to prepare for.
“I’m happy for my next fight. It’s a good fight, not an easy fight,” Golovkin said to Fight News. ”This is boxing nobody knows, one punch can change the fight. I wanted this fight. I believe in my style, power, I believe I will win.”
Martirosyan has lethal power when he plants his feet and throws his right hand with full power. The problem is Martirosyan is often moving around, and that takes away a lot of the power that he has going for him. It’s been 5 years since Martirosyan last knocked out an opponent, and that was journeyman Ryan Davis, who he stopped in the 2nd round in June 2013. Since then, Martirosyan has been taken the distance in wins over Mario Alberto Lozano, Willie Nelson, and Ishe Smith. During that same time period, Martirosyan has lost decision fights to Demetrius Andrade, Jermell Charlo and Erislandy Lara. None of those fighters were able to knock him out.
Martirosyan is a world class fighter and he fought in the 2004 Olympics for the United States. Making it to the Olympics shows how good of a fighter Martirosyan is. He didn’t go as far in the Olympics as GGG did in winning a silver medal, but the fact that he made it that far shows what kind of talent Martirosyan is.
“I live in California now and Vanes is from California. This is a big gift for the fans here and it’s Cinco de Mayo. I want to thank HBO and Stub Hub for supporting this fight,” Golovkin said. “The Canelo fight is one I want. I also want a unification fight. Right now my focus is Vanes.”
Golovkin wants the fight with Canelo, but he could be looking at 2 fights before he gets to the rematch with the 27-year-old Mexican star. Golovkin hasn’t said whether he’s going to defend his IBF title against his IBF mandatory challenger Sergey Derevyanchenko or not.
GGG has until August 3 to defend against Derevyanchenko. If not, then the International Boxing Federation will step in and strip him of his middleweight title. Golovkin says he wants to fight three times this year. He can make that happen, but it won’t be easy with the small amount of time Golovkin will have between the Derevyanchenko and Canelo fight. If Golovkin fights Derevyanchenko in early August, then he’ll have around 5 weeks to get ready for the Canelo fight on September 15. 5 weeks is probably enough for GGG to prepare for Canelo. But the 5 weeks might not be enough for Golovkin to recover fully from the punishment he potentially takes in the Derevyanchenko fight.