Vanes Martirosyan

Vanes Martirosyan Վանես Մարտիրոսյան
Martirosyan in 2010
Statistics
Real name	Vanes Norik Martirosyan
Nickname(s)	The Nightmare
Rated at	Light middleweight
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Reach	73 in (185 cm)
Nationality	Armenian American
Born	May 1, 1986 Abovyan, Armenia
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	39
Wins	36
Wins by KO	21
Losses	2
Draws	1

Vanes Norik Martirosyan (Armenian: Վանես Մարտիրոսյան; born May 1, 1986) is an Armenian American professional boxer and world title contender. He is the current WBC Silver light middleweight champion and ranked the #1 contender by the WBC, #9 by BoxRec, and #6 by The Ring magazine.

Early life

Vanes was born on May 1, 1986, in Abovyan, Armenia. Vanes' father, Norik Martirosyan, was a boxer in Armenia who worked for an industrial company and was also in the army. Vanes has two brothers, one older and one younger, and a sister.^[1]

His family moved to Glendale, CA when he was four years old. He started boxing when he was seven after his father found out there was a gym nearby.

Martirosyan was taken out of junior high school by his father and became home-schooled once it had become clear that he needed to keep his son's fighting confined to the ring.

Amateur career

Martirosyan was an eight-time National Champion and a Golden Gloves Champion.

In 2004, after winning a match against Haiti's Andre Berto in the 1st AIBA American 2004 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Tijuana, Mexico, Vanes secured a spot in the US Olympic Team. He represented the United States at the 2004 Olympics as a Welterweight. He was on the same olympic team as Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell.

Vanes got his nickname when, as he was fighting his way through the Olympic Trials, everybody was calling him "Nightmare." Once he fought in the Western Trials, Vanes started beating all fighters that were highly ranked nationwide. The young Nightmare underdog came in and beat all the favorites to eventually make the 2004 US Olympic thirteen-man boxing team.

Results were:

• Defeated Benamar Meskine (Algeria) 45-20
• Lost to Lorenzo Aragon Armenteros (Cuba) 11-20

He finished his amateur career with 120 wins and 10 losses. All losses except to Nick Casal and Lorenzo Aragon had been avenged in rematches.

Notable boxers Vanes defeated as an amateur include Austin Trout (three times), Andre Berto and Timothy Bradley.^[2]

Professional career

At the age of 20, he turned professional at 154 pounds with Bob Arum's promotional company Top Rank. Vanes is managed by his uncle, Serge Martirosyan.^[3] He is also co-managed by Shelly Finkel, who also manages and advises world champions such as Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, Evander Holyfield, Manny Pacquiao, Fernando Vargas and Jeff Lacy, among others.

Vanes is trained by Freddie Roach, who was voted 2003 and 2006 Trainer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America. He trains alongside Roach's other top students: Manny Pacquiao, Julio César Chávez, Jr. and Amir Khan.

Martirosyan has also worked with Ronnie Shields, winning his first fight under Shields's tutelage when he knocked out Dan Wallace in one round. Shields has also trained: Evander Holyfield, Juan Díaz, Rocky Juarez and Pernell Whitaker.

Martirosyan subsequently scored a shutout unanimous decision over Clarence Taylor,^[4] and also recorded wins against Billy Lyell (who would later topple previously unbeaten John Duddy), Harrison Cuello, Andrey Tsurkan and Willie Lee.^[5]

Martirosyan was scheduled to make his HBO debut on June 5, 2010 in Yankee Stadium on the Miguel Cotto vs. Yuri Foreman undercard. His opponent was fellow undefeated prospect Joe Greene (22-0, 14 KOs). Martirosyan handed Greene the first loss of his career by way of unanimous decision. With this win Martirosyan, advanced to 28-0 with 17 wins coming by way of knockout.

On March 19, 2011 Vanes made his next appearance in the ring at the Bell Centre in Montreal. He got an easy win over Mexican Bladimir Hernandez by way of KO in the second round.

His next fight was against veteran Saúl Román in a WBC semi-final title eliminator for the vacant WBC Silver Light Middleweight Championship. The bout was on June 4, 2011 in HBO's televised portion of the Julio César Chávez, Jr. vs. Sebastian Zbik undercard. Román knocked Vanes down in the first round and gave him trouble in the next two. Martirosyan came back in the fourth and fifth. When the seventh round began, Román cornered Vanes against the ropes and landed several blows. Vanes may have caught Román just in time from being stopped. In the same round, Vanes trapped Román against the ropes and knocked him down. After Román got up, Vanes landed a hard right hook on his chin and followed up with a barrage of blows while Román was leaning on the ropes, causing the fight to be stopped and turning what seemed to be near-defeat into victory.

On October 29, 2011 Vanes fought contender Richard Gutierrez. Vanes dominated from start to finish and won a ten round unanimous decision. The judges' scorecards were 100-90, 100-90 and 99-91; Vanes winning all but one round from one judge.^[6]

Martirosyan fought veteran Troy Lowry on the Julio César Chávez, Jr. vs. Marco Antonio Rubio undercard. Vanes knocked Lowry down in the first round and stopping him in the third to retain his WBC Silver title.^[7]

On November 9, 2013 Martirosyan was defeated by Demetrius Andrade who on that day became a winner of the World Boxing Organization title.^[8]

On March 21, 2014 he appeared on ESPN's Goossen Tutor Promotions, defeating Mario Antonio Lozano via unanimous decision after 10 rounds in a fight for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental light middleweight title.^[9]

Professional boxing record

Titles in boxing

Martirosyan after defending his NABF and WBO NABO junior middleweight titles and winning the vacant WBA International title at the same time in June 2010.

Regional/International Titles:

• NABF Light Middleweight Champion (154 lbs)
• WBO NABO Light Middleweight Champion (154 lbs)
• WBA International Light Middleweight Champion (154 lbs)

Special Titles:

• WBC Silver Light Middleweight Champion (154 lbs)

See also

• List of Armenian Americans

References

1. http://www.vanesboxing.com/bio_personal.html
2. Anson Wainwright. "Vanes Martirosyan: "I'm calling out the champions. None of them are responding to me."". Archived from the original on February 1, 2014. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
3. Gabriel Rizk (September 17, 2011). "Martirosyan counters". Glendale News-Press. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
4. Lance Pugmire (January 5, 2008). "Martirosyan scores impressive victory". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 7, 2008. Retrieved January 6, 2008.
5. Christ, Scott (June 27, 2008). "Peterson and Martirosyan win on another Top Rank stinker". Bad Left Hook. SB Nation. Archived from the original on June 28, 2008. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
6. Doug Fischer (October 31, 2011). "Martirosyan stays busy with one-sided decision over Gutierrez". The Ring. Archived from the original on December 7, 2014. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
7. Scott Christ (February 6, 2012). "Bully Beat-Up: On Vanes Martirosyan and Boxing's Ugliest Mismatches". Bad Left Hook. SB Nation. Archived from the original on August 23, 2012. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
8. Scott Christ (November 9, 2013). "Martirosyan vs Andrade results: Demetrius Andrade wins vacant WBO title by decision". Bad Left Hook. SB Nation. Archived from the original on November 12, 2013. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
9. Scott Christ (March 29, 2014). "Vanes Martirosyan: Top Rank held me back from making the biggest fights". Bad Left Hook. SB Nation. Archived from the original on December 7, 2014. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
10. Vanes Martirosyan's Professional Boxing Record – BoxRec.com

External links

• Professional boxing record for Vanes Martirosyan from BoxRec
• Official website
• HyeFighters - Armenian Combat Sports Athletes
• Alternate record site
• Boxing Encyclopedia
• Biography at the US Olympic Committee
• Fighthype.com
• Stars are Aligned for Vanes Martirosyan