MaxBoxing
Dec 28 2004
Simonyan Fighting for A Title, and So Much More
By Thomas Gerbasi (December 28, 2004)
Motivation comes in a number of different forms. For some in the
fight game, it’s money; for others, it’s the chance to make history
or to be able to put a world championship belt in their trophy case.
For junior featherweight contender Artyom Simonyan, who challenges
for his first world title tonight against IBF champion Israel Vazquez
at the Sycuan Resort and Casino in El Cajon, California, his
motivation can be found in the picture he carries with him wherever
he goes.
It’s his four-year-old daughter, and while that isn’t the greatest
surprise in the world, as most fathers carry their children’s
pictures around with them, in the case of the 29-year-old Simonyan,
it’s the closest he’s ever come to his only child, who was born after
he left Armenia for California in 2000.
`It’s very tough,’ said Simonyan’s manager Harry Kazandjian. `He
carries his daughter’s picture with him all the time, they talk on
the phone and he watches her videotapes that they send him from
Armenia. It’s tough, that’s why I say I think whatever it takes, he
will do it to win this title, so hopefully after the fight he can go
visit his family.’
It’s what keeps Simonyan in the gym constantly, working hard and
honing his craft, hoping that not only skill, but sweat will push him
through the tough times against the veteran Vazquez, who while two
years younger, dwarfs the challenger in professional experience, with
39 fights to Simonyan’s 15.
Yet since a 2002 stoppage of then-once beaten Radford Beasley,
Simonyan has shown that he has what it takes to compete at the higher
levels of the sport. Three victories followed the Beasley fight, over
quality foes Ablorh Sowah (TKO 6), Carlos Contreras (W12), and Fahsan
3K-Battery Por Thawatchai (W12), and coupled with Simonyan’s past
sparring sessions with the likes of Vazquez and Manny Pacquiao,
Kazandjian is confident that his charge will take care of business
against the champion tonight, even if the two combatants are friendly
outside the ropes.
`He knows that this is a world championship fight, this is a war,’
said Kazandjian. `There is no friendship and he knows that he has
been here four and a half years, he hasn’t seen his family, his wife,
and his daughter. He knows how important this fight is. There’s no
friendship; this is a war.’
If Simonyan can pull off the upset, he will become the second world
champion from Armenia to be crowned this month, joining buddy Vic
Darchinyan, who stopped previously unbeaten Irene Pacheco in 11
rounds on December 16 to win the IBF flyweight title. With
Darchinyan, Simonyan, featherweight contender William Abelyan and
2004 US Olympian Vanes Martirosyan (who was born in Armenia) all
making noise in the boxing world, are we witnessing the birth of a
new breed of world-class Armenian fighters?
`With the situation now between the countries, they have a chance to
get out and expose their talents,’ said Kazandjian. `The Darchinyan
kid, he and Art were in the same league and Art was the number one
pick to go to the Olympics at his weight, and Vic actually did go to
the Olympics, to Sydney. And he ended up staying over there. But they
know each other, they’re very close friends. They were talking on the
phone before and after Vic’s fight. I think it’s a lot easier to get
out of Armenia now to visit the United States, so they’re all trying
to take a shot, to come here and expose their talent. There are a lot
of talented fighters in Armenia.’
Simonyan, a highly touted amateur who compiled a 195-20 record
including three national championships, didn’t make the trip to
Sydney because of political issues, according to Kazandjian, but he
did make the trip to Glendale, California in 2000 to chase his boxing
dreams. Luckily, Glendale has a huge Armenian population of 350,000,
making his adjustment to the States a little easier, though there
still were the expected rough spots.
`Getting adjusted to the lifestyle here in the United States, which
is totally different from Armenia (was the biggest challenge),’ said
Kazandjian. `But he got adjusted very fast, which helped him in his
boxing career. He even adapted very fast from the amateur to the
professional style. But no matter how much he likes to be here, he
always misses his family.’
Yet Simonyan is here on business, which is what he told his manager
upon setting foot in sunny California. `When he got here he said he
wanted to become world champion,’ said Kazandjian.
He’s got his chance tonight, to take all the years of toil and
frustration of being away from home and put them into 12 rounds of
boxing that he hopes will unseat Israel Vazquez as champion. It’s a
tough life, but one which Artyom Simonyan has accepted.
`It is what it is, and there’s no going backwards right now,’ said
Kazandjian. `We’re right at the end, and he just has to do the best
he can, hopefully win the title, and then he can visit his country as
a world champion.’
And finally meet the little girl he’s only seen in pictures.