Local fighter getting busy
GLENDALE — According to the game plan publicly laid out by his camp on Thursday, Glendale-based light middleweight Vanes “Nightmare” Martirosyan will go from his longest-ever layoff between fights to the quickest turnaround since the earliest stages of his nearly six-year-old professional career.
After facing Bladimir Hernandez in Montreal on March 19, Martirosyan will be right back in action just 35 days later to face Saul Roman for the vacant World Boxing Council Silver light middleweight title in Thackerville, Okla. on April 23.
It matters not to Martirosyan, who will take as much action as he can get after going without a fight since beating Joe Greene on June 5.
“It’s been a long time, I’m excited,” said Martirosyan (28-0, 17 knockouts), who retained his North American Boxing Organization and North American Boxing Federation light middleweight belts and won the vacant World Boxing Assn. International light middleweight title by winning a 10-round unanimous decision over Greene at Yankee Stadium. “I feel hungry again like I’m just turning pro again.
“I’m happy for the opportunity that Top Rank [Promotions] has given me.”
Edgar Gonzalez of Round One Media, Martirosyan’s publicist, said there is chance Martirosyan could go on to face the winner of the March 5 fight between Saul Alvarez and Matthew Hatton for the WBC light middleweight belt after the successful completion of the two tasks currently set out before him.
“He’s excited because he’s been calling out people left and right and no one wants to fight him,” Gonzalez said of Martirosyan, who, in the past year, has made public challenges to Shane Mosley, Paul Williams and Sergiy Dzinziruk, among others. “He’s definitely anxious to get back in the ring.”
But before he can resume his pursuit of the division’s heavy hitters, Martirosyan must concentrate on Hernandez, who sports a record of 18-4 with 16 knockouts, although he has lost his last three fights and been knocked out in each.
“It doesn’t matter how many losses he has, it looks like he has good knockout power,” Martirosyan said. “We take every fight like it’s a world title fight.
“I don’t know how I’m going to beat him, I just know I’m going to win.”
Roman (34-8, 29 KOs) also suffered a three-bout losing streak in late 2010, but has been on an upswing since, winning his last two. On Jan. 29, he scored a second-round technical knockout of Michael Medina, whom Martirosyan defeated via 10-round unanimous decision on Sept. 19, 2008.
Martirosyan is currently training with Freddie Roach at Wild Card Boxing Club, but when Roach leaves for the Philippines in early March to prepare star client Manny Pacquiao for a May 7 bout with Mosley, Martirosyan will finish off his training for the Hernandez fight at the Glendale Fighting Club with GFC proprietor Edmond Tarverdyan.
“He has been training nonstop even though he hasn’t actually fought anybody for almost nine months,” Gonzalez said. “He wants to get back in there and that’s why he’s willing to take a fight on March 19 and April 23.”