Top Rank Live made its debut tonight on Fox Sports Net. They will be presenting over 30 cards over the course of the year on Fox Sports affiliates. Tonight’s show was headlined by 2004 US Olympian Vanes Martirosyan against former light middleweight champion Kassim Ouma.
The fight had a lot of good action with some rounds that were difficult to call. Apparently all the close rounds went to Martirosyan. The unanimous decision was awarded to Vanes Martirosyan, with scores that did not accurately reflect the competitiveness of the fight.
Ouma pressured Martirosyan in the opening rounds, as Ouma does in all of his fights. Ouma’s style was difficult for Martirosyan to figure out. An accidental headbutt at the end of round four opened up a cut over the left eye of Martirosyan.
As Ouma started to slow a bit in the middle rounds, Martirosyan began to find a rhythm. He still seemed frustrated not only with Ouma but with the swelling that was forming over his left eye. Vanes needed to do something to stay in this fight and his comfort level was peaking at just the right time. Ouma was still coming forward, only his punch output was decreasing. This allowed Martirosyan to land with more accuracy.
Martirosyan went down in the 9th from a right. It was a flash knockdown, which was evident when Martirosyan did a handspring to get back to his feet. The tenth and final round contained back-and-forth action as both men emptied their tanks.
The fight went to the scorecards and Vanes Martirosyan was given the nod by scores of 97-92, 97-93, 97-93.
On the undercard, Diego Magdaleno earned a unanimous decision victory over Gerardo Robles. Magdelno improved to 13-0 (3 KOs) with the win while Robles fell to 9-9 (5 KOs).
Making his professional debut, Jose Benavidez stopped Steven Cox (1-1) in the first round. Benavidez is a prized prospect within the Top Rank stable.
