MARTIROSYAN COMES BACK HOME
By Steve Kim
Maxboxing
409.asp
June 24 2009
He tried it for the better part of a year. Junior middleweight prospect
Vanes Martirosyan – who faces Andrey Tsurkan this Saturday night in
Atlantic City as part of Top Rank’s ‘Latin Fury 9 ‘- packed his bags
and made the move from the safe and familiar confines of Glendale,
California to Houston, Texas. From training under the auspices of
Freddie Roach at his Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, he went deep
into the heart of ‘the Lone Star State’ to work with Ronnie Shields
at the Savannah Boxing Club.
The move was designed in part to limit the amount of distractions faced
by Martirosyan, a local celebrity in his hometown. But going from a
city where there is a dense concentration of Armenian-Americans to an
area where he was basically the only one was difficult for Martirosyan.
"To be honest, it felt like the first fight was good," said
Martirosyan, who had six bouts with the respected Shields in his
corner, beginning with a six-round decision over Clarence Taylor
in January of 2008. "The first fight I was really good because I
still had Freddie’s style in me, but as the fights went on, my style
started to change. I felt like I just turned professional, like my
first fight. There are a lot a lot of pluses to it, but I felt like
it was my first fight again, turning professional. I didn’t know what
I was really doing. It just wasn’t clicking."
But there was one benefit: like a young child going away to college
for the first time, he began the process of becoming an adult.
"It was me going into another stage of my life, growing up, waking
myself up in the morning and going running and doing the training. It
was great," he says. "Ronnie’s a great coach, I just felt the style,
it wasn’t working." Martirosyan also gained a greater sense of
concentration on his craft while in Houston. "That’s another good
thing that happened in Texas; I learned how to be more focused and
more determined on my fights and how to handle the fans. Now, the
fans still come around, they still show me love – they actually grow
fight by fight. I’ve learned to deal with it now. I’m dealing with
it very well now, actually."
He would head back home after for good after outpointing perennial
trial horse Billy Lyell in February. Shields saw it coming.
"I really wasn’t surprised, because I knew he was lonely. He’s a young
kid and he really didn’t have any family out here. He got lonely being
away from his family. He always complained about that. After every
fight he wanted to go home and he kept trying to let the weeks before
training get smaller and smaller. So it was just a matter of time,
trying to deal with the loneliness and I think that’s what really
got to him."
It’s a formidable task to teach a pupil who’s really not there
in spirit.
"It’s very difficult," Shields says. "At the beginning, I guess,
because it was something new that he had never experienced before,
meeting all new people, it got a little exciting for him at the
beginning." As some of the other boxers in Shields’ stable would break
camp to go home, Martirosyan was oftentimes left alone. "He really
didn’t have anybody to hang with," explained the trainer, who harbors
no ill-will towards his ex-fighter. "It got tough on him, it did,
and I knew it. It got tough on him and I could see it in the gym,
sometimes he really didn’t want to be there. His mind was elsewhere."
Shields mentioned just how much Martirosyan missed having his father
and younger brother in the gym on a daily basis, like he did back in
Southern California. He believes ‘the Nightmare’ is a future world
champion and adds, "Vanes is a really good guy. And I couldn’t get
mad at him for that."
Soon he was back at the Wild Card, a place he can truly call his
boxing home. Every day he walks in with his father and brother with
a look of contentment. Outside the gym, he’s with people that look
like him and share the same cultural interests. In this instance,
you can go home again.
"Coming back home here to Hollywood with Freddie, I feel like I’m
where I belong. I feel like the puzzle pieces to my picture have been
together and I’m glad it’s put back together, now," he says.
Roach says of the reunion, "I was a little disappointed when he left,
I don’t know exactly what the reasons were why Shelly Finkel took him
to Texas. But he came back. I was a little hesitant, so I made them
sign a contract because I didn’t want to build the kid back up and
have him taken away again. So I was protecting myself. But at this
point in time, it’s not a problem,. A lot of bad habits he got in
Texas, I’m trying to change and I just don’t feel he was doing the
right things. They let him do whatever he wanted, that’s not the
way I run. When he was hitting the heavy bag with the headset on,
I went crazy."
As they embark on their second journey together, Roach’s goal is to
have Martirosyan fight like a real professional. The transition for
Martirosyan has been slow. He’ll come out of the gate quickly for
most of his fights, but if he can’t blow his opponent out early,
invariably he starts to skate around the perimeter of the ring,
throwing one shot at a time.
"I wish they would raise the level of his competition," stated
Roach. "When he spars with Roman Karmazin and the champions in the
gym, he rises to that level and I think the better fighters he fights,
the better he fights. So I hope this is the last test and we can go
after some type of title after this."
The goal is to reach a middle ground between using his springy legs and
letting his heavy hands go in combinations. At too many times he has
looked like the Armenian version of Yuri Boreman (who fights Cornelius
Bundrage on the same card this weekend). Martirosyan has a legitimate
chance at becoming the first bona-fide American born, Armenian ticket
seller. But ethnicity is not enough; in today’s marketplace there is
a premium on being an entertaining, crowd-pleasing fighter.
"Oh, of course," agreed Roach, who just happens to train perhaps
the most exciting fighter in the sport, Manny Pacquiao. "Fans like
fighters who come to fight. The Mayweathers of the world, they’re
boring. Counterpunching is a great art, of course, but it’s a little
boring, so people like aggressive fighters like Pacquiao. Guys who
like to fight."
He has a chance to shine against the tough-as-leather Tsurkan, and
the Top Rank brass has high expectations of Martirosyan this weekend.
"A spectacular performance," says Top Rank matchmaker, Brad
Goodman. "He knows how important it is, this is his first big
stage where he’s opening up a pay-per-view show in a ten-round
fight. He’s fighting a very capable guy, a guy who’s been in with
the best fighters, and Vanes, at this point in his career, has to
make a statement."
Tsurkan and his methodical movement seems to present the perfect
opportunity to shine.
"Absolutely, he gets hit with everything," Goodman says bluntly. "Vanes
is very explosive early. It wouldn’t shock me if Vanes got him out
of there real, real quick."
But nobody, even the heavy-handed Alfredo Angulo, has ever gotten
Tsurkan out of there early. He always brings his hard hat and lunch
for a full day’s work.
"He comes to fight and the thing is, being a tough guy, it doesn’t win
fights, of course, but he’s going to be in front of you all the time,"
said Roach of their foe. "So I think we’ll out-box him handily. The
thing is, I told Vanes, ‘Box this guy, break this guy down and knock
him out because not too many guys have stopped this character.’ So
it would be very impressive to knock this guy out."
Martirosyan is looking to make a statement.
"The fight with Andrey Tsurkan, it’s nothing personal to any other
fighter that fought him. It’s me showing my skills and what I can do
with a fighter like that. In this fight, everyone’s going to open
their eyes and say, ‘Wow, what happened to this kid? Why all of a
sudden he turned into somebody else?’ I think it has a lot to do with
competition. I’m very happy with Top Rank, they’ve built me up very
well and this is the next step in my life I have to take.
"It’s going to be a good fight."
BETWEEN A ROCK AND HARD PLACE
The HBO broadcast this weekend will feature just one fight, Victor
Ortiz-Marcos Maidana, after WBA featherweight champion Chris John
fell ill and a suitable replacement was not agreed upon for Rocky
Juarez. The dangerous and hard-punching Mario Santiago was brought
up and accepted by HBO, but Juarez made it clear that he was willing
to face anyone between 126-130 provided they were not left-handed.
You can’t blame Juarez; the bottom line is that he trained for the
better part of two months preparing for a long, lanky right-hander,
sparring with the likes of Hylon Williams, and to face Santiago, a
southpaw who can bang, would’ve been very, very risky. And remember
this, he wasn’t the guy who pulled out of the fight.
The problem is that with the scarcity of dates left in 2009, it’s
not really clear just when Juarez will be scheduled to go again. He
truly was between a rock and a hard place.
Golden Boy Promotions scrambled to put together another fight as the
opening bout this weekend. A bout between Craig McEwan and Enrique
Ornelas was proposed – and then nixed by the network – and there
was talk of perhaps putting Daniel Jacobs on this card, but nothing
really fit.
PERSPECTIVE
More than one person or organization throughout the industry is
grousing about this weekend’s telecast on HBO. They believe if it
were anybody else, this whole show would’ve been scrapped, that they
wouldn’t be allowed to go on with just Ortiz-Maidana.
There may be some truth in that statement, but to be honest, I can’t
ever recall an instance where the main event – and the rest of the card
– was called off because the opening bout was postponed. And go back
in history, there have been plenty of instances where HBO has featured
just one fight. This certainly isn’t an anomaly that only Golden Boy
enjoys. Me personally, I’ve always believed that it seems like getting
just half a dinner when either HBO or Showtime only showcases one
bout. Most of the time, it just leaves you unfulfilled and wanting
seconds. Ortiz-Maidana has a chance to be a very good scrap, but in
terms of anticipation it’s not Shane Mosley-Antonio Margarito.
But it’s funny, while the rest of the boxing world believes the
Golden Boy enjoys special privileges from HBO, Golden Boy will tell
anyone that will listen that because of those said accusations, they
are treated to a tougher and different standard when it comes to the
approval of their fights than any other promotional firm.
It just goes to show you that people can see the exact same things
and have totally disparate perspectives. I guess it all depends on
the perch you stand upon.
FINAL FLURRIES
Another fallout of the John pullout is that Golden Boy had wooed the
Indonesian population in Southern California in putting the rematch
at the Staples Center. What will this do to the attendance on Saturday
night?…I guess if you want a full night of boxing on TV that evening,
you can always plunk down $39.95 for ‘Latin Fury 9’……Shane Mosley
has been quoted as saying that the postponed bout between Mayweather
and Marquez had sold only 2,300 tickets, which goes directly against
what Schaefer is saying. I think Golden Boy needs to get their story
straight…..Say what you will about Donald Fehr, in a negotiation,
I want that guy on my side…..John Ensign is such a hypocrite he
should get into boxing….