Vanes Martirosyan Defeats Unbeaten Medina

Kid Diamond Edges A Close Win

By Igor Frank

Photos: Chris Farina-Top Rank

 
Buffalo Bill’s Star Arena, Primm, Nevada

 

In the opening bout of the evening televised by Telefutura, Solo Boxeo, unbeaten 2004 U. S Olympian Vanes “The Nightmare” Martirosyan(21-0’13KO’S) from Glendale, California took on a fellow undefeated super welterweight prospect Michael Medina from Mexico in a ten round bout. It was obvious from the onset that Vanes had a huge advantage in technique department; he used a stiff jab to push his opponent back and utilized punches that looked a lot straighter than the ones of Medina. What Michael Medina(18-1-2,14KO’S) lacked in skill was compensated by his will; he took a lot of right hands, hooks and uppercuts and managed to get into the fight in the middle rounds by firing back and catching Vanes with looping right hands on the way out. Vanes did a lot of good work in the fight such as mixing together head combinations with body work, even though his coach Ronnie Shields kept imploring him to use his jab and not go straight back and to move his head.

 


Yes, Vanes did get caught by long looping right hands moving backwards and he could have avoided a lot of punches by moving his head, but in my eyes he dominated the fight over a very durable unbeaten foe and he got to go the full ten rounds with a  dangerous puncher. Judges scored it unanimously for Martirosyan 100-90, 98-92, 97-93. Bob Arum was happy with his protégé: “He is getting better every time out,” said Bob after the fight. Actually Vanes beat two opponents this week: Ike and Mike (hurricane Ike back where he trains in Houston and Mike Medina in the ring) all kidding aside, Vanes looked good. I would like to see his next fight and that, according to Bob Arum, will happen on November 1st at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

 

In the main event of the evening Kid Diamond found himself in a life and death struggle against a durable Mexican veteran Javier Jauregui. Kid Diamond discovered right away that he couldn’t push Javier around; Jauregui used a jab and found a home for his long right hand. The fight was not pretty; both combatants kept lunging in and missing with their punches and inside fighting created a lot of clinching. Early on a veteran of seventy fights and ex lightweight titlist Jauregui (53-16-2,36KO) was simply the busier fighter and the one who was the aggressor. Almazabeck Rayiymkulov aka Kid Diamond (27-1-1,15KO) was moving back and countering effectively, but he was just not busy enough.

 


Kid Diamond started to find his range in the middle rounds; he was able to avoid getting hit for the most part and countered with sharp combinations, even hurting his opponent several times but not able to finish him. Jauregui who has been fighting professionally since 1988 has been sort of a designated “Gatekeeper” for up and coming prospects, but obviously somebody forgot to tell him that, because he was trying hard to win every round and wont the last stanza on two of the judges scorecards.. Kid Diamond just barely squeezed through the gate with a majority decision win: 95-95, 96-94, and 97-93,but he needs to do a lot better if he ever wants to bein contention for a title.