It’s Showtime for Martirosyan on March 28 versus Charlo

CBS Sports and Showtime Sports announced Tuesday a multi-year venture to jointly present boxing on the CBS Television Network with the first event to air April 4 on CBS.

The joint Showtime-CBS endeavor will begin its push a week earlier though, when a March 28 “Showtime Championship Boxing” event will feature a main event between featherweights Gary Russell, Jr. and World Boxing Council champion Jhonny Gonzalez, along with a super middleweight co-main event clash between the undefeated Jermell Charlo and Glendale’s own Vanes “Nightmare” Martirosyan as announced in the Tuesday press release.

In the weeks leading into Tuesday, Martirosyan had somewhat teased the bout with tweets about March 28. Now it seems it has come to fruition.
The 28-year-old Martirosyan (35-1-1, 21 knockouts) is currently ranked fifth by The Ring in the 154-pound junior middleweight/super welterweight class, just a spot above Charlo (25-0, 11 KOs), who is 24 and has a twin brother, Jermall, who is also an undefeated boxer.

The press release did not announce where the card will emanate from, nor did it specify the number of rounds the bout will be contested at, though it’s likely to be a 10- or 12-round contest.

It announced other prominent names on upcoming cards, though, with the first CBS event on April 4 featuring WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson defending his belt against Sakio Bika, while Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. is set to return to action April 18 on Showtime. Lightweight Omar Figueroa will square off with Ricky Burns on a May 9 CBS telecast, just a week after top pound-for-pound fighter Floyd Mayweather fights on Showtime pay-per-view May 2.

A former United States Olympian, Martirosyan was unbeaten through the first 34 fights of his career before a split-decision loss to Demetrius Andrade in November of 2013.

Since his first world title shot resulted in his first career loss, Martirosyan has looked outstanding in his two subsequent bouts. In March of 2014, he shut out the durable Mario Alberto Lozano on all three judges’ cards for a unanimous decision and, in October of last year, defeated Willie Nelson via unanimous decision in an exciting action fight that was seen by many to be Martirosyan’s most impressive victory yet.

Both fighters will be making their 2015 debuts.

Charlo last fought Dec. 13, 2014 against Lozano and, just like Martirosyan, won a unanimous decision by shutout, winning all 10 rounds on every judge’s scorecard.