Chances are if you've
followed Vanes Martirosyan - who faces Erislandy Lara this Saturday night at
the Wynn Resort - on Twitter (@VanesBoxing) the past year or so, you've
probably been either amused, annoyed, angered…or a combination of all three - by
his 140-character missives. The bottom line is his messages (with which he's
done everything from call out every marquee name from 154 to 160 pounds and
give his rather scathing critiques of other boxers around his weight class)
have left many to either heckle him, block him or unfollow him.
Some have done all three.
Yeah, Martirosyan has felt
the wrath of the passionate fan-base that has now made Twitter an integral part
of the boxing experience. The great thing about Twitter is that you can have
immediate and direct interaction with the fans. The downside is that...well,
you can have immediate and direct feedback from the fans.
“It was crazy, man, because
y’ know, I live boxing. It's my life. That's how I pay my bills. I was trying
to get a fight, so I was talking as much crap as possible to get a fight,”
admitted Martirosyan last week before his training session at the Wild Card
Boxing Club in Hollywood. “So finally I got a big fight, so that's why I'm not
saying anything bad about nobody or anything. It was nothing personal; I wanted
a big fight and I wanted to prove myself and show myself to the world. And
finally I got the opportunity to do that.”
So how much of this was shtick?
Martirosyan says, “I was
just trying to get someone pissed off enough to fight me because I don't really
talk a lot of crap about nobody. I'm a nice person. I don't like to talk a lot
of sh*t. I was just doing it to get a big fight; finally I got one.”
Throughout this time, he
didn't land that coveted fight but he did get a rise out of the boxing aficionados
who weren't afraid to verbally spar with him. “It was crazy because I was
getting bad responses from people. It was working though; people were talking
back and forth so it was alright,” said Martirosyan, chuckling.
But did the vitriol ever
anger him?
“It's funny because it's my
job to get the big fights to make some money and to fight. People talking, I
mean, I don't talk about their jobs. They come in talking but I don't know; it
was weird but it was funny. I take it. And some of the stuff I laughed at but
it was just business,” he said. But Martirosyan says some of what was hurled at
him did anger him. Because of that, “I ended up talking more crap,” he says,
laughing.
But that's part of the deal;
if you're a public figure like Martirosyan (who currently has 5,158 followers
as of press time), you will have stuff thrown your way that isn't always a bouquet
of roses. So does Martirosyan, generally a very friendly, good-natured young
man, regret any of the back-and-forthing?
“A little bit,” he admits, “but
I don't mean anything by the things that I say because I'm not that kind of a
person. So I'm not one of those bad fighters that talks a lot of crap. I just
wanted a big fight; I was just tired of fighting this many years as a pro and
not being able to get that shot.”
His tweets certainly got the
attention of the brass at Top Rank. “My uncle was getting calls from Bruce
Trampler and Carl Moretti telling him to get me the hell outta Twitter,” Martirosyan
says, laughing loudly. “My dad doesn't really get on the computer but whatever
my uncle was telling my dad, he was telling me, ‘Don't talk too much.’ I'm
like, ‘Sh*t, I just want a big fight.’”
“Twitter can be a great thing
and it can be a bad thing. So you just gotta use it wisely and I think there
were points that he just tweeted in frustration more than anything,” explained
Moretti, the V.P. of Boxing Operations for Top Rank, who adds, “The social
media explosion has caused management and teams and promoters to really monitor
it and see what goes on. The idea is to help promote, not take away leverage or
negotiate in a different way. I think you see it with the NFL a lot and NCAA
players, for sure, and boxers. There's no question there's a whole different
dynamic than we've ever dealt with because it's instantaneous and it's such a
common thing now. So you really gotta monitor it.”
Moretti (@CarlMoretti) makes
sure he follows all of the fighters represented by Top Rank. “Absolutely, we
set them up with Twitter accounts and Facebook; we encourage it. Because
whether we want it or not, it's here to stay, Facebook and Twitter, and it's a
great way of promoting yourself and your events - if it's done in the right
way. So it's the quickest, most inexpensive way to do things and it's only
going to get bigger. But you gotta know how to use it and when to use it and
really why to use it.”
Using Twitter to state
you'll fight someone for free or winner-take-all, well, that wouldn't be the
right usage of this platform. Moretti, a noted Notre Dame homer, jokes, “They'll
lose their Twitter account and whoever goes against Notre Dame is going to have
a problem too.”
But why did it take so long
for Martirosyan, who is undefeated in 32 pro outings, to get to this point?
This fight with Lara is not only the headliner on HBO's “Boxing After Dark”, it's
a WBC eliminator (the sanctioning body announced on Thursday that the winner of
this bout would get the next crack at Saul “Canelo” Alvarez…although they could
always change their minds). Even though he's just 26 years old, Martirosyan
feels this caliber of fight is overdue. “Yeah, that's why I was talking a lot
of crap on the internet to a lot of guys because I wanted a big fight and
I'm happy I got it and as you see now, I haven't said anything bad about
nobody.”
So why did it take so long?
After all, Top Rank is one of the leading promotional firms in the world and
Martirosyan had built up his record. But for the past year or so, his career
had stagnated. Martirosyan still can't figure it out. “I don't know,” he admitted.
“The politics in boxing and my job is to be the fighter but you can ask them
that.” When Moretti is pressed for an answer, he states, “A lot of reasons; his
one time on HBO, he was in a great situation at Yankee Stadium but he was in
against a guy [Joe Greene] who didn't really want to fight. The '54-pound
division really went in a different direction; we played political games with
the different organizations. We're still playing them right up to now.” What Moretti
is referring to is Martirosyan has fought for various titles and this isn't his
first WBC eliminator. And after his rather unimpressive victory over Greene in
June of 2010, HBO soured on him. “So I think he got to the point where he
didn't want to take the small fights and he was just looking for bigger fights
and when you're looking for a big fight, that's usually a time you can't get
one. Instead of doing it the other way, it's usually when they come along,”
Moretti concluded.
So now after facing the
likes of Bladimir Hernandez, Saul Roman, Richard Gutierrez and Troy Lowry, he
faces the talented Cuban in a fight that could propel him to where he really
wanted to go all along.
“He's a good fighter; I know
Ronnie Shields’ style a little bit,” Martirosyan said of his former trainer,
who works with Lara. “He's a good fighter; it's going to be a good fight. I'm
in great shape; we watched tapes on Lara. Lara's a good fighter but I think on
the 10th, we're going to show him something he's never seen before.”
JAN 19TH
Word is that Top Rank might
be co-promoting the January 19th show at the Theater at Madison
Square Garden, where Gennady Golovkin is scheduled to defend his WBA
middleweight crown with Top Rank bringing aboard the fight between WBO featherweight
titlist Orlando Salido and Mikey Garcia (who faces Jonathan Barros on this
weekend’s edition of “B.A.D.”) and the Puerto Rican grudge match between
Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and Juan Manuel Lopez.
K2 Promotions (which handles
Golovkin) has put a hold on the venue and put in the application for this date
with the New York State Athletic Commission. The problem is they don't have
much of a stable and HBO had concerns on whether they could provide them with a
suitable co-feature on this night. If this happens, that problem is solved.
As for who Golovkin will face,
it looks less and less likely that it will be South African, Thomas Oosthuizen.
MAROTTA
On Thursday, Hall-of-Famer
Carmen Basilio passed away at the age of 85. I was much too young to have any real
recollections of him but here's how veteran broadcaster Rich Marotta remembered
him:
“The earliest recollection I
have of the sport of boxing is from my early childhood. It was in 1957; I was
just a little kid and I was living in Hollywood, California. My dad was going
out with a bunch of his buddies one night to a local theater to watch the live,
closed-circuit telecast of the Carmen Basilio-Sugar Ray Robinson middleweight title
fight. My dad explained to me, ‘Now son, we are Italian and Carmen
Basilio is Italian,
so it's very important to us that he wins tonight. So you listen to the fight
on the radio and root very hard for the Italian, Carmen Basilio, to win. Being
a good, obedient son, I sat down in the kitchen that night and while my dad was
at the CC telecast, I listened to the blow-by-blow call of the Basilio-Robinson
fight, all 15 exciting rounds of it, and was thrilled by it. When the announcer
was yelling, ‘Basilio wins! Basilio wins!,’ I was jumping up and down in the
kitchen. It was my introduction to just how great boxing could be. In
succeeding years when Basilio would fight on television, I would dutifully sit
next to my dad and cheer for him.
“Decades later, as a member of the Board of Directors of the World Boxing
Hall of Fame, I got to meet Carmen Basilio and he got a great kick out of it
when I related that story to him. Basilio was not only fan-friendly in the ring
but out of it. He would come to those dinners each year, tell stories too, take
pictures with and sign autographs for the fans. He was a great delight to
be around. Now on the heels of losing other great old-timers Angelo Dundee,
Burt Sugar and Emanuel Steward, we send Carmen Basilio into history with them.
I'm richer for having known all of them and boxing was the better for having
experienced them.”
FRIDAY FLURRIES
A name being prominently
mentioned for newly-minted WBO middleweight beltholder Peter Quillin (who is
slated to appear on January 19th on Showtime) is Jermain Taylor.
Yeah, I know...The weigh-in for Abner Mares-Anselmo Moreno takes place at 3 p.m.,
ET at the Star Plaza at Staples Center. The public is invited and it’s also
being streamed at www.sports.sho.com/live...Peter
Manfredo Jr. is back (after saying he was retired after his loss to Julio Cesar
Chavez Jr. last November) and he will face Rayco Saunders on November 29th at the Twin River Casino in Rhode Island...Eddie Chambers has signed a
promotional contract with Main Events and will head down to cruiserweight...Omar
Henry will face Juan Ubaldo Cabrera on the November 16th edition of “ShoBox”
from Hallendale Park, FL...“A Football Life” on Jimmy Johnson was fantastic.
Some great footage from his days at “The U,” where it really was a 'Canes
Camelot during those years...Seriously, Mike Brown doesn't make it to
Thanksgiving as the Lakers coach, right?...Has Karl Rove conceded that Barack
Obama won the election yet?...Based on his track record, you really think Lane
Kiffin had nothing to do with Deflate-gate at USC?...I think K-State is really
in a dog-fight (with or without “Optimus Klein”) at TCU this Saturday...I can
be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com and I tweet
at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing.
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