By Marcus Richardson: Undefeated junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan (32-0, 20 KO’s) has expressed his desire to take the WBC offered 154 lb elimination bout against #3 WBC Erislandy Lara (17-1-1, 11 KO’s) to try and become the mandatory challenger for WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez.
The WBC ordered the fight earlier today, and a lot of boxing fans assumed that Martirosyan would reject the idea of facing Lara and would instead continue facing C level opposition while waiting for eventual title shot. However, Martirosyan agreed to fight Lara, which is a surprise because it’s a tough fight that he’ll lose and lose badly.
Martirosyan said on his twitter “Guys, there is no ifs. I said ‘Yes’ to the Lara fight already. 100 percent on board. I just want to focus on Saturday night, then back to Lara.”
It doesn’t matter whether Martirosyan says he’ll take the fight, because there’s so many chances for this fight to be derailed. The first big problem is that Martirosyan fights for Top Rank while Lara fights for Golden Boy Promotions. The chances of the two promotional companies working out a deal for a Lara-Martirosyan fight are pretty slim. Bob Arum of Top Rank has to know that Martirosyan will be over his head against Lara, and I can see him potentially nixing the idea of this fight taking place.
It would be great if Arum lets the fight happen, but I have my doubts. If I was Martirosyan’s promoter I wouldn’t let the fight happen because I wouldn’t have any faith that he can win this fight. Lara is looking too good right now and he’s the whole package. Besides that, he’s a southpaw, hard to hit and with good power. He’s a nightmare for Martirosyan, and it doesn’t matter that Martirosyan is trained by Freddie Roach. Lara is one of those rare fighters that can think on his feet, and he doesn’t need to have someone giving him what he’s doing wrong before he makes adjustments.