Vanes Martirosyan speaking after his victory over Willie Nelson

By Chris Robinson

In an excellent battle of junior middleweight contenders, Vanes Martirosyan came on strong in the second half of his match vs. Willie Nelson to march on towards a unanimous decision win. Scores of 97-93 twice and 96-94 were read in the Glendale residen’ts favor.

It was far from easy for Martirosyan, who seemed caught off guard by the lanky Nelson early on. Martirosyan would eventually settle down and began turning the tide of the fight in the third. There were several tense exchanges on the inside and the momentum seemed to change hands on several occasions.

Martirosyan had success ripping uppercuts in close and was especially effective with his right hands in the closing rounds. Martirosyan now goes to 35-1-1 with 21 knockouts while Nelson drops to 23-2-1 with 13 knockouts.

Chris Robinson can be reached at CRobinson@hustleboss.com