Light-middleweight Vanes Martirosyan (35-2-1, 21 KO’s) is looking to earn his first win of 2015 on September 12th on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather (48-0, 26 KO’s) vs Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KO’s), to be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
He will be facing Mayweather’s stablemate Ishe Smith (27-7, 12 KO’s) in a 10-round contest and looks to bounce back from a closely-contested points loss to Jermell Charlo in March.
This is an event of high exposure and a win will help to determine more accurately where his level is, having lost on both occasions when he has stepped up against the boxing gentry of Charlo and Demetrius Andrade eighteen months ago.
However, when Fight Hype spoke with him recently they, like most, were more interested in the fight at the top of the card. He gave his take.
“You know I fought Berto twice in the amateurs. He has power so it’ll be interesting to see. Virgil [Hunter] is a really good trainer.”
Berto is a really good pro when viewed within the sport in it’s entirety. In combination with an accomplished trainer, he may produce some novel instances, but his efforts will likely be scant against the fistic erudition of an ageing great.
“Floyd is Floyd. Everybody knows what’s gonna happen but it’s interesting to see what Berto’s gonna do, maybe something different that we haven’t seen. But you know, Floyd’s Floyd man, we just gotta see what Berto’s gonna do.”
The one hope that will ensure a decent number of people still purchase this pay-per-view. Berto is a tough, powerful man whose boxing skills have unfortunately failed to develop as impressively as his physicality. He could perhaps land the big shot and rip the script to pieces but as we have seen countless times before, the puncher’s chance is no chance at all against Floyd.
Both the WBC and WBA Super World welterweight titles will be on the line for this, what is supposed to be Floyd’s final professional appearance. But plenty of doubt has been cast over the likelihood of that by many in the media, and Vanes believes Floyd will find it difficult to walk away from the sport he has made his own over the last five years.
“He says it’s his last fight but I think you know, a lot of fighters that quit and retire, they always come back because they miss the spotlight. I think if he quits and stops at 49-0 he’s gonna think about 50-0. So you know, I don’t think so but he says it is.”
The spotlight on Floyd has been amplified to searing levels in the recent past and lesser men would probably not be able to take the heat. He seems to revel in it; the questions, the cheers, the catcalls, the lights, the cameras, the crowds. All for him.
However, the financial incentive to return would probably have a stronger pull than attention for the man who named himself ‘Money.’ With paycheques of at least $40,000,000 per fight since he inked a six-bout deal with Showtime in 2013 and his last appearance against Manny Pacquiao netting him seven times that amount, the power of the dollar is key to his motivations.
