Freddie Roach

Vanes “Nightmare” Martirosyan touched down in Texas on Wednesday, returned to the boxing ring Saturday and five minutes and change of ring time later, he had impressively taken care of business just as many had predicted and he had promised. Martirosyan, ranked fifth in the world by The Ring Magazine, overwhelmed Ryan Davis on Saturday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, stopping the journeyman via technical knockout at the 2:01 mark of the second round in their super welterweight bout.

Vanes Martirosyan was ready to head to Texas looking for a fight. Now the fight will come to him. In a development first publicized on his Twitter feed on Thursday, Martirosyan's upcoming 10-round fight against Ryan Davis (24-9-3, nine knockouts) will no longer be held June 16 at the Sun Bowl in El Paso as originally planned. Instead, Martirosyan (32-0, 20 KOs) will fight on July 7 mere miles from his hometown and current residence of Glendale at the Home Depot Center in Carson on the HBO "Boxing After Dark" undercard of the super bantamweight title unification bout between Nonito Donaire and Jeffrey Mathebula.

Grant Gordon Glendale's own Vanes Martirosyan suffered a setback of sorts and it came without even setting foot in a boxing ring. "The Nightmare," as the former Olympic boxer and Glendale resident is known, was set to fight his third professional fight on the undercard of the July 30 "Million-Dollar Lady" pay-per-view card, but it was cancelled earlier this week. Lucia Rijker, the co-star of the film "Million-Dollar Baby" was set to fight in the main event against Kristy Martin.

GLENDALE — Vanes "Nightmare" Martirosyan and "Mean" Joe Greene hail from opposite coasts, but hardly come from different worlds and the two undefeated junior middleweight contenders, both 24, have a lot more in common than meets the eye. Martirosyan, who fights out of Glendale by way of Yerevan, Armenia, and Greene, a Brooklyn, N.Y. native who fights out of Jamaica, Queens, carved out identical paths toward promising professional careers by...

GLENDALE ? When Vanes ?Nightmare? Martirosyan?s scheduled opponent, Juan Astorga, pulled out of Saturday night?s 10-round clash just days before the bout, the Glendale super welterweight prospect didn?t bat an eye. Instead, he simply battered Astorga?s short-notice replacement, Harrison Cuello, for all of 2:13 of the first round before winning via technical knockout at Buffalo Bill?s Resort and Casino in Primm, Nev. to improve his perfect record to 24-0 with his 15th knock- out. ?

GLENDALE — The following are odds and ends from the local sports scene. MARTIROSYAN NEW OWNER OF LOCAL GYM Undefeated junior middleweight boxer Vanes "Nightmare" Martirosyan is days away from leaving for the Philippines to join Manny Pacquiao 's training camp as a sparring partner for the current champ in preparation for his October fight with Antonio Margarito . Paquiao and the 28-0 Martirosyan both train at...

GLENDALE — While moving forward in his ascent of the 154-pound division, super welterweight prospect Vanes “Nightmare” Martirosyan is coming back to the place where his professional career started. In mid-February, the 22-year old former Olympian made the decision to break with Houston-based trainer Ronnie Shields and return to his hometown of Glendale. He has already resumed training with World Boxing Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach at Roach’s Wildcard Boxing Club in Hollywood and could be back in the ring as early as April.

"Vanes is such a hard worker. He's just a baby now, he's only 19, but we're getting there a little bit every day." — Freddie Roach on Vanes Martirosyan after the latter's second pro fight W ithin the bowels of the Staples Center, inside the confines of the Chick Hearn Media Room, Vanes "The Nightmare" Martirosyan stepped onto center stage. Shouldered by trainer Freddie Roach and Top Rank Promoter Lee Samuels, Martirosyan was the centerpiece of a press conference on the undercard of an event headlined by Julio Cesar Chavez as a part of his farewell tour.

MARTIROSYAN COULD FIGHT COTTO With rumors swirling around the boxing world that a much-hyped rematch between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito could be called off, undefeated Glendale boxer Vanes Martirosyan's name has surfaced as a possible replacement for Margarito, according to multiple boxing websites. "Getting someone to step in and replace Margarito on short notice will be much easier than thought. Two names instantly stand out, those being Vanes Martirosyan and Pawel Wolak . Both are in shape," Jack Hirsch wrote on boxingnewsonline.net.

GLENDALE —Vanes “The Nightmare” Martirosyan has scored impressive knockouts and dominated opponents with regularity over the last four-plus years, but what the Glendale-based welterweight did to Willie Lee on Saturday night at the Beeghly Center in Youngstown, Ohio came with an extra reward — two of them, to be exact. Martirosyan scored a third-round technical-knockout win over Lee to capture the North American Boxing Federation and North American Boxing Organization super welterweight titles, the first of his professional career, which has seen him amass an unbeaten record of 26-0 with 17 knockouts since debuting in April, 2005.

Vanes “Nightmare” Martirosyan touched down in Texas on Wednesday, returned to the boxing ring Saturday and five minutes and change of ring time later, he had impressively taken care of business just as many had predicted and he had promised. Martirosyan, ranked fifth in the world by The Ring Magazine, overwhelmed Ryan Davis on Saturday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, stopping the journeyman via technical knockout at the 2:01 mark of the second round in their super welterweight bout.

In the aftermath of the abrupt cancellation of his fight against Ryan Davis Friday night, local junior middleweight contender Vanes "Nightmare" Martirosyan may not be without a next fight for long. And if all goes according to plan, it will be for bigger stakes and against a much more significant opponent than the lightly regarded Davis, who was scratched from Saturday's card at the Home Depot Center after failing to clear a medical evaluation. According to his uncle and manager, Serge Martirosyan, the unbeaten Glendale native is now waiting on a response from Erislandy Lara as to whether Lara will accept the light middleweight final eliminator bout recently ordered by the World Boxing Council.

Vanes Martirosyan was ready to head to Texas looking for a fight. Now the fight will come to him. In a development first publicized on his Twitter feed on Thursday, Martirosyan's upcoming 10-round fight against Ryan Davis (24-9-3, nine knockouts) will no longer be held June 16 at the Sun Bowl in El Paso as originally planned. Instead, Martirosyan (32-0, 20 KOs) will fight on July 7 mere miles from his hometown and current residence of Glendale at the Home Depot Center in Carson on the HBO "Boxing After Dark" undercard of the super bantamweight title unification bout between Nonito Donaire and Jeffrey Mathebula.

Vanes Martirosyan's next opponent was unveiled recently, but once again it was who the Glendale-based light middleweight isn't going to fight that has dominated story lines. Martirosyan has agreed to fight Ryan Davis, but only after his camp turned down a proposed World Boxing Council light middleweight title eliminator bout in early May against Erislandy Lara that effectively ends Martirosyan's protracted pursuit of a world title through the WBC for the foreseeable future. "It's frustrating because we were OK with the Lara fight, it's just that [the WBC doesn't]

Vanes "Nightmare" Martirosyan's world title chase is in a holding pattern at the moment, which finds him ready to take on his second relatively unknown down-on-their-luck opponent in a row simply in order to avoid ring rust in the event a big fight materializes. Martirosyan (31-0, 19 knockouts) will put his World Boxing Council Silver light middleweight title on the line in a 10-round bout against 41-year old Troy Lowry (28-11, 17 KOs), a man 16 years his senior, as part of the undercard of Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.'s WBC middleweight title defense against Marco Antonio Rubio on Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

The following are odds and ends from the local sports scene. NIGHTMARE, GHOST RETURN TO RING Undefeated Glendale boxer Vanes "Nightmare" Martirosyan 's rise to blockbuster fights and title bouts seems to be yet again going slower than hoped for, as Martirosyan is scheduled to fight Troy Lowry on the undercard of an HBO World Championship Boxing event that will feature titlists Julio Cesar Chavez Jr....

MARTIROSYAN COULD FIGHT COTTO With rumors swirling around the boxing world that a much-hyped rematch between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito could be called off, undefeated Glendale boxer Vanes Martirosyan's name has surfaced as a possible replacement for Margarito, according to multiple boxing websites. "Getting someone to step in and replace Margarito on short notice will be much easier than thought. Two names instantly stand out, those being Vanes Martirosyan and Pawel Wolak . Both are in shape," Jack Hirsch wrote on boxingnewsonline.net.

After starting off the week with a joyous personal milestone - the birth of his first child - Vanes "Nightmare" Martirosyan will look to finish it off with a professional one, his 31st victory in the ring. Martirosyan (30-0, 19 knockouts) and his girlfriend welcomed son Andrew into the world on Monday, five days before he is to face Richard Gutierrez (26-7-1, 16 KOs) in a 10-round light middleweight bout at the WinStar Casino in Thackerville, Okla. tonight. "It's a big week," said Martirosyan, who will be returning to action for the first time in nearly five months.

GLENDALE — Apparently, the 29th victory of his pro career wasn't the only thing local light middleweight contender Vanes "Nightmare" Martirosyan picked up in Montreal. Around the time Martirosyan was stopping Bladimir Hernandez via second-round knockout at the Bell Centre on March 19, he was also coming down with a flu-like illness that so hampered his training over the subsequent days for an April 23 clash with Saul Roman that the fight was postponed earlier this week. "I couldn't take a fight where I didn't feel I was going to be 100%," said Martirosyan (29-0 with 18 knockouts)