Martirosyan

Though he was undoubtedly anxious to return to his newborn son in Glendale, Vanes 'Nightmare” Martirosyan seemed resigned to take the full time allotted to dispatch his opponent Saturday night. In his first fight action since June, the unbeaten light middleweight and World Boxing Council Silver light middleweight champion went the full 10 rounds with Richard Gutierrez in a non-title bout at the WinStar Casino in Thackerville, Okla. to secure a unanimous decision victory and improve to 31-0.

Grant Gordon The maturation of up-and-coming super welterweight boxer Vanes Martirosyan continued Saturday night in magnificent fashion. Martirosyan, a Glendale resident, was dominant en route to a first-round technical knockout of Jovanni Rubio, as referee David Mendoza called a stop to the fight just two minutes and 38 seconds into the bout. The scheduled four-round bout, which saw Martirosyan improve to 2-0 with his first career knockout, was part of a non-televised undercard of the Top Rank Boxing Julio Cesar Chavez-Ivan Robinson Showtime pay-per-view at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Though he was undoubtedly anxious to return to his newborn son in Glendale, Vanes 'Nightmare" Martirosyan seemed resigned to take the full time allotted to dispatch his opponent Saturday night. In his first fight action since June, the unbeaten light middleweight and World Boxing Council Silver light middleweight champion went the full 10 rounds with Richard Gutierrez in a non-title bout at the WinStar Casino in Thackerville, Okla. to secure a unanimous decision victory and improve to 31-0.

GLENDALE ? Two bouts featuring prominent Armenian-born fighters are expected to draw a large crowd from Glendale to the Honda Center in Anaheim on Saturday. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. for a day of boxing that will include a 12-round junior middleweight contest for Glendale?s own Vanes ?Nightmare? Martirosyan and will be capped by a 12-round main-event title defense for super flyweight Vic Darchinyan at 7 p.m. First bell will be at 3:30 p.m. Martirosyan will face Billy Lyell in a bid to improve on his record of 22-0 with 14 knockouts, the last of which came in just 80 seconds against Charles Howe on Nov. 1, 2008.

GLENDALE ? In order to reach the next plateau of his career ? a title shot in the light middleweight division ? Vanes ?Nightmare? Martirosyan will have to face some bigger tests this year. Saturday?s 10-round bout against Andrey Tsurkan at Top Rank Promotions? Latin Fury 9, which will be televised live at 6 p.m. on pay-per-view from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., certainly qualifies as one of the toughest challenges, if not the greatest yet, the unbeaten Glendale resident has faced in a professional career that began in 2004.

GLENDALE ? The next time Vanes ?Nightmare? Martirosyan sets foot in the ring, he will realize a longtime dream shared by many fighters before him and no doubt by many yet to come. The unbeaten light middleweight, who hails from Glendale, has fought on some of the biggest stages of boxing?s current epicenter, Las Vegas, but on Oct. 10 he will fight for the first time in a legendary arena once considered the mecca of boxing, New York?s Madison Square Garden. ?A lot of fighters dream to fight there, I?

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. ?

In a fight he couldn't lose, Vanes "Nightmare" Martirosyan seemed to know he couldn't win. Anything less than a prompt annihilation of 41-year old club fighter Troy Lowry on Saturday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio would have been an embarrassment to the World Boxing Council Silver light middleweight champion. But soon after had he dispatched the overmatched Lowry at the end of three one-sided rounds, Martirosyan sounded embarrassed that the match was ever made.

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....

As the calendar turns to 2012, there's sure to be no shortage of rumors and hypotheticals tossed about as to who, when and where Vanes "Nightmare" Martirosyan will fight next. On Monday, Boxing News 24's Jason Kim reported a particularly juicy one - Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Feb. 4 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. At first glance, the matchup would seem to have everything the Glendale-based Martirosyan (31-0, 19 knockouts) has been clamoring for lately. At 44-0-1 with a fervent following and a famous bloodline, Chavez Jr. is a bigger fish in the boxing world than any of Martirosyan's previous foes.

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.

Though he was undoubtedly anxious to return to his newborn son in Glendale, Vanes 'Nightmare" Martirosyan seemed resigned to take the full time allotted to dispatch his opponent Saturday night. In his first fight action since June, the unbeaten light middleweight and World Boxing Council Silver light middleweight champion went the full 10 rounds with Richard Gutierrez in a non-title bout at the WinStar Casino in Thackerville, Okla. to secure a unanimous decision victory and improve to 31-0.

Though he was undoubtedly anxious to return to his newborn son in Glendale, Vanes 'Nightmare” Martirosyan seemed resigned to take the full time allotted to dispatch his opponent Saturday night. In his first fight action since June, the unbeaten light middleweight and World Boxing Council Silver light middleweight champion went the full 10 rounds with Richard Gutierrez in a non-title bout at the WinStar Casino in Thackerville, Okla. to secure a unanimous decision victory and improve to 31-0.

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.

Vanes "Nightmare" Martirosyan hasn't been in the ring since early June, but nonetheless, the undefeated light middleweight has taken quite a beating over the past week. Rather than physical, the abuse heaped on Glendale's most famous fighter in the wake of turning down a proposed Nov. 5 fight in Cancun, Mexico against Alfredo Angulo late last week has been verbal, dished out over the web by sources as varied as Golden Boy Promotions brass, fight fans on Internet message boards and even Angulo himself.