By Dan Ambrose: Vanes Martirosyan tried his best to stand up to middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s power, but in the end, he folded like a cheap suit in getting stopped in the 2nd round of their scheduled 12 round fight at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. The GGG vs Vanes fight was televised by HBO World Championship Boxing.
Martirosyan said afterwards that he’d never been hit by the kind of power shots that GGG hit him with tonight. Martirosyan describes Golovkin’s power like a train. Martirosyan was bowled over by 5 of Golovkin’s power shots in round 2, and he was unable to get up. One of the punches from Golovkin hit Martirosyan (36-4-1, 21 KOs) while he was down on the canvas. Martirosyan was on one knee at the time Golovkin hit him. The shot sent Martirosyan down flat on the canvas. Golovkin walked away at that point. Martirosyan tried to rise but then collapsed on his face for the second time. The fight was stopped at 1:53 of round 2.
“It was like being hit by a train,” Martirosyan said via RingTV. “It wasn’t one punch, but all of his punches. It was the hardest I’ve ever been hit.”
Martirosyan was hit very hard by 4 or 5 shots in the fight that looked like Golovkin had put everything he had into the punches. These were shots that Golovkin didn’t throw in his two previous fights with Saul Canelo Alvarez and Danny Jacobs.
Golovkin was more focused on boxing Canelo and Jacobs, throwing jabs, placing shots and just trying to win rounds, which didn’t work nearly as well for him as he would have liked. The Golovkin we saw tonight was the old one that boxing fans had been used in the past, the knockout artist Golovkin, who was loading up on everything he threw. Martirosyan couldn’t stand up to GGG’s power with him firing everything with mean intentions.
Martirosyan was a little too confident for his own good, as he went on the attack in the 1st round and forced Golovkin to go into the slugging mode. Golovkin seems to thrive at fighting back when he has an opponent that challenges him with power shots. The guys that have given Golovkin problems – Canelo, Daniel Jacobs and Kell Brook – mostly took the finesse approach to try and beat him. This led to Golovkin staying on the outside and boxing them instead of going after the way he did with Martirosyan tonight. Golovkin didn’t fight like that tonight. He stormed after Martirosyan after he was met with heavy resistance in round 1.
Golovkin’s jab was a very important weapon for him tonight. He was using it effectively in the 1st and 2nd round to control the action from the outside.
This is a chance of a lifetime for Martirosyan, who was picked out by Golovkin as the replacement for Saul Canelo Alvarez after he pulled out of the fight. Martirosyan wasn’t going to roll over and let Golovkin beat him easy tonight. Martirosyan gave it a good shot in taking the fight to GGG in round 1. Golovkin looked surprised and a little embarrassed at the end of the round with the punches that Martirosyan was able to hit him with in the round.
I imagine there was steam coming off of Golovkin when walked back to his career. He did not look happy with how the round ended. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez told him to relax, stop loading up on single shots, and to throw more combinations. Golovkin responded to the instructions by throwing harder punchers in the 2nd round, and unloading with a 5-punch combination when he had Martirosyan trapped along the ropes when he was hurt.
The 32-year-old Martirosyan started the fight out looking better than Golovkin in round 1. Near the end of the round, Martirosyan went after Golovkin, and surprised him by hitting him with a right hand and then a really hard left. Golovkin moved backwards, thinking that he was out of range of Martirosyan. He wasn’t out of range, as Martirosyan kept moving forward and nailed GGG with a left to the head that had a lot of power on it. Golovkin backed up out of range of Martirosyan’s shots, but it was already too late, because he was hit hard by two meaningful punches.
Martirosyan had fought for world titles on two occasions coming into the fight. But he hadn’t been in the ring for 2 years, and he was moving up in weight from 154. The weight between the two fighters wasn’t that significant for the fight. Martirosyan weighed 170 compared to Golovkin’s 173. Martirosyan wasn’t used to being hit as hard as Golovkin was hitting him in the fight and that was the difference. When it came down to it, Martirosyan wasn’t ready to take the kinds of shots that Golovkin was nailing him with.
After the fight, Golovkin told HBO that he’s up for facing anybody but without going into specifics. If Golovkin is to keep his IBF middleweight title, he’ll need to get back into the ring by the summer to defend against his IBF mandatory Sergey Derevyanchenko. Golovkin has until August 3 to defend against him.
“I have a lot of belts,” Golovkin said said. “I’ve been champion for the last nine years. I challenge everyone in the division to come and get my belts. Let’s clean out the division. I want everybody.”
If Golovkin takes on and beats Derevyanchenko instead of vacating his IBF title, then he’ll fight Saul Canelo Alvarez on September 15. It’s not a 100 percent sure thing that Golovkin’s management will be able to negotiate the fight with Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions, because they’re going to want to be the A-side again like last time, and they’re probably not going to sweeten the deal from the previous negotiations. Golovkin might feel like he deserves a better cut of the revenue for how he got the better of Canelo last September. Golovkin might also feel justified that he should get more money for being inconvenienced with Canelo testing positive for the banned substance clenbuterol ad then dropping out of the May 5 fight. But if Golden Boy aren’t willing to give GGG a better deal, then there’s nothing he can do about it other than walk away and leave Canelo to fighting safe opponents like Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan and David Lemieux.
