By Jeff Aranow: Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) feels that he’s on the verge of shocking the world by beating undefeated middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) on Saturday night to take his IBO, WBA and WBC titles from him at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Golovkin’s IBF title won’t be on the line for the fight, so he at least might still have that strap if he loses to Martirosyan. Golovkin is seeking his 20th consecutive title defense, which would tie him with former middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins as having the longest title reign in the history of the 160 lb. division. The 32-year-old Martirosyan stands in the way of GGG from accomplishing that task.
The GGG-Martirosyan fight card starts at 11:00 p.m. ET on HBO World Championship Boxing.
Martirosyan is getting the fight against Triple G at the perfect moment. Whether intentional or not, Golovkin has changed his fighting style from a puncher to that of a boxer in his last 2 fights, and he’s suddenly looking very beatable. If you look at Golovkin’s amateur fights, he was beatable when he was boxing his opponents. It was only when he would start stalking his opponents and unloading on them that he would set himself apart from his opponents. Lately, Golovkin has stopped going after his opponents the way he’d done in the past, and not surprisingly he’s had problems winning. If Golovkin fights like that on Saturday, then Martirosyan will have a good chance of winning, because he can box too and he’s a little bit taller than GGG and more mobile. The 31-year-old Martirosyan is also younger than the 36-year-old GGG.
2004 U.S Olympian Martirosyan has been a pro for 13 years, but he’s never been able to capture a world title unfortunately. In Martirosyan’s prior two attempts at winning a world title, he was beaten by Demetrius Andrade and Erislandy Lara. Despite losing to both of those guys, Martirosyan gave them all they could handle.
“I’ve got this opportunity to shock the world. I’m not fighting a robot. GGG is human and he is beatable,” Martirosyan said to ESPN.
Golovkin had looked very much like a robot until recently. I think Golovkin didn’t care whether he was hit earlier in his career, but he’s started carrying since beating Kell Brook in 2016. Lately, Golovkin has been trying to win his fights without getting hit that much and it’s been making his contests a lot harder than what they would be.
Golovkin is beatable, and he’s certainly looked it lately in his last two fights against Saul Canelo Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs. You can put the blame on GGG’s off performances on his decision to box Canelo and Jacobs rather than standing in the pocket and using his main asset with his punching power.
When a fighter holds back on his best weapon, they’re going to struggle, which is what Golovkin did. He showed Canelo and Jacobs far too much respect in those fights and he forgot what had brought him to this level. It’s unclear whether Golovkin lacks confidence when fighting better opposition or what. The thing that is obvious is that Golovkin didn’t let his hands go against Canelo and Jacobs, and for that reason he struggled and was fortunate that he wasn’t given defeats.
“I have been counted out before and I have shined. This is my time. Fate has reached out to me and I am ready to seize the moment. You can never plan for something like this, but you can be prepared, and that’s why I never left the gym,” Martirosyan said.
Martirosyan has hurt his own career by not staying active following his 12 round unanimous decision loss to Erislandy Lara in their rematch on May 21, 2016. Martirosyan has been inactive since then in staying on the sidelines for 2 years. It’s a mystery why Martirosyan stopped fighting. What’s clear is that it didn’t help him improve, and all it did was age him 2 years.
Martirosyan might as well have retired from the sport, because if he’s going to stay out of boxing for that long, then there’s no point in carrying on. Unless Martirosyan has been sparring consistently against good opposition for the last two years, he likely will have lost a lot from his game. Martirosyan looked sharp in his last fight against Lara in 2016. If Martirosyan can get back to that level, he could give GGG a lot of problems on Saturday night.
“I’m not afraid of Gennady. I’m psyched to fight him,” Martirosyan said. ”This is why I became a fighter. I’m not the only one taking this fight on short notice. Everyone has a soft spot. I’ll find his. I have no fear.”
Martirosyan might have been afraid of GGG if he had fought him immediately after his fight with Kell Brook in 2016. Golovkin was still slugging at that point in his career, and he hadn’t turned into a boxer. Martirosyan has never been knocked out before, and he’s always been the bigger puncher during his fights. It’s going to be a different story on Saturday night if GGG comes to fight instead of box. If Golovkin really does bring the ‘Mexican style’ that he often says he’s going to do, and then Martirosyan could be in for a world of hurt in this fight. He’s not fought anyone with the kind of power and constant pressure that GGG is going to be brining to this fight if he chooses to slug.
Martirosyan is a lucky guy to have the Golovkin fight fall from the sky into his lap. Up until recently, Golovkin was supposed to be fighting Saul Canelo Alvarez on May 5. But after the Mexican star failed a couple of drug tests last February in testing positive for clenbuterol, he was received a 6-month suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Canelo pulled out of the fight, leaving Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler in a bind in needing to find a replacement opponent on 3 weeks’ notice.
Golovkin never gave up on the idea of staying on the May 5 date, as he has a huge amount of Mexican boxing fans that wanted to see him fight on Cinco de Mayo. This date is very valuable for any fighter that fights on that date in the United States. Floyd Mayweather Jr. used on the Mexican holidays after Oscar De La Hoya retired. Canelo took the Mexican dates after Mayweather retired, and now GGG gets that date all for himself. He doesn’t need to worry about Canelo. This is Golovkin’s time to shine on Saturday. Unfortunately for Golovkin, his fight against Martirosyan is off HBO PPV.
It’ too bad because he could have brought in a lot of PPV buys. Of course, it would have needed a better opponent than Martirosyan to maximize the amount of buys. After Canelo pulled out of the fight, Golovkin’s fight was moved from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Golovkin won’t be making nearly as much money fighting on regular HBO at the StubHub, but there was nothing he could do about it. He wanted to keep his May 5 date, and unfortunately there won’t be as much money. Even if Golovkin had fought a better opponent than Martirosyan like Sergey Derevyanchenko or Demetrius Andrade, the money wouldn’t have been as good.
”This is what we dream about, having a fight like this,” Martirosyan said. ”I am just so excited and every day I have a big smile on my face. I will get to show the world where I belong in this sport. It’s a perfect fight for Cinco de Mayo because it is going to be two guys — Mexican-style fighters — going head to head. It will be a perfect show for the boxing fans,” Martirosyan said.
It could be a good fight if Martirosyan can handle the punching power of GGG, and if both fighters choose to slug it out. It’s all going to depend on which Golovkin shows up for the fight. If we see the same timid Golovkin that we’ve seen in his last two fights, then this will be a dull chess-match for 12 rounds. Golovkin has slowed his last two fights down by waiting too long before he throws his punches. He holds back, looking for the exact right moment before committing to a punch. He’s not throwing shots just to throw them like he was doing before. If Golovkin fights with his old style, Martirosyan will be lucky to go more than 6 rounds. When Golovkin is fighting with the ‘Mexican style’, he’s brutal and dangerous. Golovkin needs to be in that frame of mind for him to knockout his opponents.
In Golovkin’s fights with Jacobs and Canelo, he waited until the last four rounds of the fight before he went for a knockout. By that point in the fight, Golovkin was no longer as strong and as fresh as he was earlier in the fight, and the power wasn’t there for him. If Golovkin waits until the later rounds to go for a knockout on Saturday night, then he won’t be able to KO Martirosyan either, because he has a pretty good chin. Martirosyan will be able to handle GGG’s power if he’s tired and not as strong.
This is Martirosyan’s moment in the sun. He’s going to be seen by millions of boxing fans, and he has a chance to beat the middleweight in the division. Martirosyan should be at his best for this fight. There’s absolutely no excuse for him to be at less than his best. Martirosyan will need to make some adjustments to the size and power of Golovkin, as he’s moving up in weight from the 154 lb. division to 160. Golovkin isn’t a big middleweight though. Martirosyan isn’t facing a guy that will blow up to over 180 like Daniel Jacobs or Canelo alvarez. Those guys put on a lot of weight after they rehydrate for their fights. It’s been a while since Martirosyan last had his hand raised. The last time Martirosyn won a fight was almost 3 years ago when he beat Ishe Smith by a 12 round unanimous decision in September 2015. It’s not a good thing that Martirosyan has gone so long since winning, but that doesn’t mean he can’t win against GGG. It does mean that Martirosyan will need to fight the perfect fight for him to beat GGG. Martorosyan can win if he learns from watching GGG’s last two fights, and focus on taking advantage of his flaws.