Vanes Martirosyan Is Ready To Move Up To The Next Level
Posted by Igor Frank on 05.26.2009
Igor Frank discusses US Olympian Vanes Martirosyan, his upcoming bout and his future in a deep super welterweight division.
On June 27th,2009 unbeaten Us Olympian Vanes The Nightmare Martirosyan ( 24-0,15 KO'S) is scheduled to take on the toughest test of his professional career , hard as nails Russian from New York City, Andrey Tsurkan( 26-4,17KO'S). The fight will take place in Atlantic City with the main event featuring rising Puerto Rican star, Juan Manuel Lopez, and will be televised live on Pay- Per- View.If going to Olympics was like graduating from high school and turning professional was like going to college, then upcoming bout with Andrey Tsurkan would be like graduating from a good University for a talented Vanes Martirosyan. Is he going to be graduating with honors, on top of his class? Let's see what happens on June 27th.
Light middleweight Martirosyan competes at the very deep and talent rich division which currently has four champions : Paul Williams, Daniel Santos, Cory Spinks and Sergiy Dzinziruk, but wait, Vernon Forrest was just stripped of his WBC title in favor of an interim champion Sergio Martinez. So, now we have five champions, all very skilled and talented, confused?Join the club.
Aside from five champions we have three hot undefeated contenders, James Kirkland, who is currently in jail, and Alfredo Angulo, who is scheduled to fight Cintron next Saturday and Vanes Martirosyan, who is going to fight Tsurkan next month. Right behind them is a Cuban Olympian Lara, who has been raising a lot of heads with his skill set as of late. Lots of good match ups to be made.
Even though many pundits feel that his development has been very slow, especially considering his extensive amateur experience, Vanes subscribes to the theory that good things come to those who wait. Consider a recent performance of Andrei Ward, gold medalist , who was a team mate of Vanes at 2004 Olympic Games. Despite the fact that many felt that Andrei should have been fighting for a title two years ago, Ward demonstrated his terrific skill set, toughness and ability to deal with adversity by thoroughly dominating, rough and more experienced Edison Miranda.
Bruce Trampler, a matchmaker for Top Rank has been taking his time with Vanes, who just turned twenty three this month and is still developing physically as a man. I was ringside at Buffalo Bill's Arena in Primm, Nevada on May 16th, when Vanes destroyed usually durable Harrison Cuello within one round. It was a spectacular performance, where Martirosyan displayed speed, agility and combination punching.
After spending all of 2008 in Houston, training under Ronnie Shields, Vanes came back home to Southern California and reunited with his old trainer, Freddie Roach and is currently training at Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood. Coach Roach is very good at allowing each fighter to be himself and maximizing on his individual assets and within a very short time back young Vanes seems to be finding his stride; his punches are a lot sharper, his movements in the ring are more fluid and his confidence level is rising. Other factors contributing to further development of the young US Olympian are additions to Roaches coaching staff : ex heavyweight champion Michael Moorer and coach Jessie Reed. According to his father, who is in the gym every day, Vanes has taken to Michael Moorer who has had his imprint on the young upstart on a daily basis. Aside from technical stand point, Moorer is big on hard work and discipline and dedication in training. Jessie Reed who was in the corner of Martirosyan for the last fight and who will be with Vanes in Atlantic City likes what he sees in his charge. " He looks good in sparring," said Reed: " He should do well if he follows the game plan."
