Vanes Martirosyan and Erislandy Lara fought to a technical draw in 2012 due to a clash of heads in the ninth round, where Vanes suffered a cut above the eye. The fight was well contested throughout but it seemed like a bad clash of styles with the orthodox and southpaw leading to many headbutts during the fight. Martirosyan (36-2-1) 21 KO’s has been calling Lara (22-2-2) 13 KO’s out since the fight claiming unfinished business as Lara was going on to fight some big fights after their meet.
Lara went on to put on a fight of the year type performance in his next fight, a win against Alfredo Angulo dispatching Angulo after being dropped twice in the earlier rounds. Capturing the interim WBA world super welterweight title in the win, Lara since has made 4 successful defenses of said title. Beating the likes of Austin Trout and Ishe Smith and a tough controversial loss against Canelo Alvarez which wasn’t a title fight has propelled Lara in the public eye.
Vanes, on the other hand, has suffered losses during that run but has recently put himself in position for a title fight with a dominant win over common Lara opponent Ishe Smith. Vanes being the first person to drop Smith in a fight doesn’t hurt either as Martirosyan put on a better beating of Smith than did Lara.
Which leads to the rematch Martirosyan has been asking for. Slated for May 21st on showtime we will see if this fight produces fireworks Lara has been on an incline and Martirosyan before the Ishe Smith fight you might say was on a decline. The all too familiar moniker of boxing “styles make fights” may prove true in this one. Their first fight was quite a technical chess match where both fighters landed single hard shots but both always would get out of range before follow-up punches.
Lara landed plenty of jabs per usual but Vanes constant pressure had Lara looking uncomfortable during the whole fight. Fight controversy plus a lot of trash talk and tons of intensity during the weigh in’s before the fight sure are going to sell the fight. Vanes in my opinion on tape has given Lara the most fit since the first few rounds against Angulo, not even Canelo made Lara look as uncomfortable as Lara did against Vanes. With that being said Lara has looked exceptional as of late being very elusive and using those tools of the Cuban school of boxing and I believe has grown every fight since. Vanes got his shot at redemption lets see if it plays out in his favor this May.
