By Chris Robinson
You’ve got to give it undefeated junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan; the guy certainly knows how to keep his name in the headlines. Currently the Armenian-born, Glendale resident is caught up in a war of words with bruising Polish fighter Pawel Wolak, as the two men have been said to be on course for a December 3rd showdown in New York underneath the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito rematch at the famed Madison Square Garden.
When the fight was first said to be made, I reached out to Martirosyan who told me unabashedly that Wolak would be ‘destroyed’ if he came at him with his typical brawling style. The next morning Wolak reached out and returned fire, pointing to Martirosyan’s recent fight against Saul Roman this past June, a bout in which he was cut early and dropped in the first round before recovering to carve out a 7th round TKO.
“You are only as good as your last fight,” Wolak pointed out. “So if Roman could put him down in the first round in his last fight, what does that tell you? My power and output is like five times that of Roman and he would have been counting stars and he would have been finished.”
Wolak would go on to point out that he is more interested in a clash against IBF junior middleweight champion but that fact hasn’t swayed Martirosyan from taking some more digs at the 29-year old.
"Wolak's not on my level. I don't have anything bad to say about him, I just don't think he can beat me. But if he wants some then I can teach him a lesson,” Vanes stated.
People had been clamoring for a Martirosyan matchup with Alfredo Angulo, who returned to the ring following a year-plus hiatus last weekend by blowing out overmatched Joseph Gomez in one round in Mexico. Martirosyan insists it was a fight he was looking for and that the Wolak clash came out of nowhere.
"I'm not ducking Angulo,” he stated. “I never got an offer for that fight and I didn't know about the Wolak fight. I'm ready for whatever and I will show everyone that it’s my time."
Martirosyan then finished up with a bit of a personal message to his promoters, Las Vegas-based Top Rank Promotions.
“I want to let Top Rank know that I promise to always put on an amazing fight from now on. I don't care if I get knocked down. I'm tired of waiting, I'm going to work my ass of and start proving people wrong and proving the people who believed in me right."