Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Aug 12 2004
Plenty of fight
Young Glendale boxer a surprise Olympian
By Paul Oberjuerge , Staff Writer
ATHENS, Greece — Vanes Martirosyan’s enthusiasm is endearing. And
sometimes endangering.
The 18-year-old welterweight from Glendale revels in the chance to
box for his adopted country in the Athens Olympics.
“It’s so exciting,” he said Tuesday, a heavyweight smile erupting on
his boyish face. “When I sit and think about it, sometimes I get
tears in my eyes. Like, where am I? Is this really true? It’s like a
big dream. Then you wake up, and the coaches are there saying, ‘Let’s
go run,’ then you go, ‘Yeah, this is true. I am here.’ ”
“Here” is the Summer Olympics, the apex of the amateur boxing world.
No wonder Martirosyan is fired up.
But that youthful exuberance can be a detriment in the ring.
Martirosyan is most effective, U.S. assistant coach Joe Zanders said,
when he sticks with the technical, “Russian style” long-distance
boxing he learned from his father and personal coach, Norik, who
moved his family to Glendale from Armenia in 1990.
“What we want him to do is box,” Zanders said of the 152-pounder. “We
don’t want him to get into a fight. He gets excited, and he will
fight; he’s got that kind of heart.
“We have to keep him doing the things he’s done so far to get himself
here.”
That Martirosyan is here at all, preparing to walk in Opening
Ceremonies on Friday, is a significant upset. He wasn’t one of the
country’s well-regarded welterweights when the selection process
began this year, and his progress through the U.S. Trials surprised
even him. If not his father or his uncle, Serge, who repeatedly told
him, “You’re the best. You don’t know how good you are.”
He began to think maybe his father and uncle were right after he
defeated fifth-ranked Timothy Bradley in the Western Trials. Then he
clinched a berth in the Athens Games by defeating second-ranked Andre
Berto of Haiti in the continental qualifier in Tijuana, Mexico.
“My confidence kept going up and up,” he said. “I was getting better
and better.”
Martirosyan believes he is “a puzzle” to opponents because he can
change styles at the drop of a glove.
He grew up with the Russian style his father learned while boxing in
the former Soviet Union. “But I can fight American style, and I had a
Mexican coach (Joe Lopez), so I can fight Mexican style, too,” he
said. “Guys don’t know what they’re going to get from me.”
Lopez said he was not surprised when Martirosyan qualified for the
Olympics.
“He has been training very hard,” said Lopez, who until three years
ago trained Martirosyan out of Glendale. When Lopez was offered a job
at the Baldwin Park Boxing Club, he accepted, and Martirosyan
followed.
“He worked really hard in the gym and I think it is his
determination,” Lopez said. “No matter how much anybody tries to
discourage him, he believes in himself and he goes for it.”
Louie Escobar is head trainer at the Baldwin Park Boxing Club. He
said that when Martirosyan first set foot in his gym at age 15, he
knew he was something special. And not just as a boxer.
“I could see that he was very, very respectful, a good role model for
the younger kids,” Escobar said. “And I could see that he was very
talented. Raw, but talented.”
Zanders suggest Martirosyan is best served by the heady,
at-a-distance Russian style that can help him rack up jab points in
the electronically-scored Olympic tournament.
“He fights more like a Russian than anybody who’s not a Russian,”
Zanders said. “Guys who move and punch at the same time. He does that
extremely well.”
Zanders said Martirosyan was holding his own with 2003 world champion
Lorenzo Aragon of Cuba after two rounds in a tournament bout here in
May. Then the excitement factor bushwhacked the Glendale Kid,
something even Martirosyan concedes.
“The first two rounds, I was doing good, and the coaches tried to
calm me down because I get so excited, I’m having so much fun,” he
said. “I just started throwing raw punches. In the third round,
(Aragon) was running from me, and I was chasing him, but he was
scoring punches, while he was running.”
Martirosyan lost a decision, but perhaps gained some perspective.
“He didn’t stick with his game,” Zanders said. “If he listens to the
coaches, things will be a lot different. Losing to the Cuban is maybe
his greatest motivator, to this point. Now he has a better idea of
what this is about.”
Martirosyan’s father tried for 10 years to emigrate to the U.S., and
the family is so thankful to have joined relatives in Glendale that
Vanes sees the Olympics as a chance “to thank this country because it
made room for me and my family. Just to wear these (red, white and
blue) colors is a thrill for me.”
Martirosyan has become something of a celebrity in Glendale’s large
Armenian community. “They support me a lot,” he said. “When I walk
out of the house they come up and hug me and kiss me and say, ‘Go do
it.’ They show me a lot of love.”
According to USA Boxing spokeswoman Julie Goldsticker,
Armenian-American grocers sometimes refuse to take Norik
Martirosyan’s money, telling him to “go feed his son.”
Vanes Martirosyan will be joined here this week by his father and
uncle, as well as little brother Vatche and cousin Ilousha. His first
bout is Sunday.
A strong Olympics showing often has been a springboard into a
lucrative professional career. American welterweights who fought in
the Olympics include Sugar Ray Leonard, Donald Curry, Mark Breland,
Pernell Whitaker, Fernando Vargas and Oscar De La Hoya. The Golden
Boy happens to be a favorite of Martirosyan’s.
“The way Oscar won the gold and dedicated it to his mother, that was
great,” Martirosyan said.
The home-schooled boxer said he will not decide about turning pro
until after the Olympics. Hr added that his father and uncle will be
prime movers in that choice.
“I box; they handle everything else,”he said.
Martirosyan is not a medal favorite. The top welterweights figure to
be two-time gold medalist Oleg Saitev of Russia and Cuba’s Aragon.
Then again, Berto was a bronze medalist at the 2003 World
Championships, and Martirosyan defeated him during his breakthrough
year.
Said Zanders: “I think he has a chance to be a real problem for some
of the better boxers. I would not be surprised at any level he
achieves.”
Said Martirosyan: “Every day I sit in my room and dream what it would
be like to win a gold medal,” and another monster smile lights up the
room.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress