By Miguel Rivera
World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman cautions that Vanes Martirosyan could become a spoiler, by derailing a potential fall rematch between IBF, IBO, WBC, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.
Vanes will challenge Golovkin on May 5th from the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Vanes replaces Canelo, who withdrew from the contest after being suspended for coming up positive for banned substance clenbuterol in two separate drug tests in February.
Canelo is under a six month suspension and plans to return to the ring in September - potentially in a rematch Golovkin. They fought to a controversial twelve round split draw last September at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Vanes, who is moving up from the junior middleweight limit of 154-pounds, is a very big underdog in the contest with Golovkin and almost everyone is ruling out the idea of an upset.
But Sulaiman has left that door open - because the champion has only had 2-3 weeks to prepare for Vanes and his style is completely different when compared to Canelo. There have also been a whirlwind of distractions with the withdrawal of Canelo and his drug testing controversy.
"So many distractions can affect Golovkin a lot. There is also an important factor for when he gets in the ring, because he will face an opponent with a totally different style," Sulaiman said.
"There is a reason [for Vanes being a worthy challenger]. He has been ordered to fight five in final final eliminators [at 154-pounds] and five fighters have walked away; he has been preparing for eliminators and they fall out. So, it was not his fault [for being inactive]. The last one was Maciej Sulecki, and it went to a purse bid. Don King won the purse bid and already began the process to finalize the date and everything else, and then Sulecki pulled out."
