Martirosyan In Us Olympic Team

[Ararat]

Associated Press

Martirosyan wins final spot on Olympic boxing team

February 29, 2004

 

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Vanes Martirosyan won the final spot on the U.S. Olympic boxing team Sunday, beating Austin Trout to win the welterweight division in a belated end to the box-offs.

 

Martirosyan, from Glendale, Calif., won 25-17 in a match held two days after his 10 teammates clinched spots on the team. The welterweight division was thrown into turmoil during the Olympic trials last week in Tunica, Miss., when top contenders Juan McPherson and Andre Berto were disqualified.

 

McPherson and Berto petitioned a judge and an arbitrator in an attempt to get back into the competition, but USA Boxing's final ruling was upheld. Martirosyan won two fights in Cleveland to earn the spot.

 

The 11 fighters will train in Colorado Springs until the Tournament of the Americas in Tijuana, Mexico, on March 12-20. The boxers must finish in the top two of their weight class to guarantee themselves a trip to the Olympics in Athens.

[Sebastia]

now, if he can just win GOLD, that will be great.

[fightsport]

WAY TO GO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymouse]

That's awesome, I'll be lookin out for him in the Olympics.

[shiner]

I just saw him on MSNBC breezing through this Algerian. The next fight against a Cuban will be much tougher.

[Armen]

Martirosyan batters Algerian for U.S. boxing's second win

By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer

 

August 15, 2004

 

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Seven months ago, Vanes Martirosyan was America's 14th-ranked amateur welterweight -- not a typical starting point for an Olympic boxer.

 

Martirosyan has turned out to be a whole lot better than almost anybody expected. With a few more wins, the same might soon be said about the entire U.S. boxing team.

 

Martirosyan erased any doubts about the legitimacy of his spot in Athens, battering Algeria's Benamar Meskine in a 45-20 victory in the preliminaries Sunday to earn a second-round match with Cuba's Lorenzo Aragon.

 

``I finished like a champion,'' said Martirosyan, an Armenian-born 18-year-old from Glendale, Calif. ``I could have won another four rounds, to tell you the truth. I felt so good out there.''

 

Martirosyan showed the power and flair of a contender, dictating the fight's pace with a stiff jab and opportunistic combinations. He also counterpunched effectively while landing more shots to the head than almost any competitor so far at the busy boxing venue, which hosts more than 20 fights every day of the preliminaries.

 

Middleweight Andre Dirrell got the United States off to a good start Saturday with a win in his preliminary bout. Two Americans received first-round byes, and five more will fight in the next three days before the second round begins Wednesday.

 

Tougher fights still loom for a team that's thought to be among the weakest in the United States' superb Olympic boxing history, but the boxers believe they can improve on their mediocre four-medal haul four years ago in Sydney.

 

``We're a great team, we're in great shape and we're going to bring a lot of medals home,'' Martirosyan said.

 

Martirosyan was one fight from elimination at the U.S. team trials in February in Tunica, Miss., but the two top contenders were disqualified when Andre Berto threw Juan McPherson to the canvas, injuring McPherson's neck. McPherson was medically disqualified, and Berto was banned for his actions.

 

Though he caught a lucky break, Martirosyan made the most of it by earning an Olympic spot in the ensuing qualifying tournaments. Berto, from Winter Haven, Fla., made the Olympics anyway on Haiti's team -- but Martirosyan beat Berto in a subsequent tourney.

 

``A lot of boxing fans and people in our organization were very well aware of Vanes,'' U.S. coach Basheer Abdullah said. ``There were a lot of predictions that he was going to make this team. ... He was very, very aggressive today. He dictated what was happening in the fight.''

 

Martirosyan hoped to meet Berto later in the draw, but Berto was beaten 36-34 in the evening session by France's Xavier Noel, a former world champion. Berto, whose parents are Haitian, fought well and nearly rallied from a nine-point deficit in the fourth round, but Noel apparently hung on. The decision was loudly jeered by fans.

 

Martirosyan was cheered at Peristeri Olympic Boxing Hall by his father, Norik, a former amateur fighter who moved his family to California when Vanes was 4; his younger brother, Vatche; his uncle and his cousin -- and a bunch of fans from Glendale who showed up unannounced, waving Armenian and American flags.

 

Aragon will be a stiff test for Martirosyan on Thursday. The two-time world champion beat Martirosyan in the Athens Test Event in May -- but Martirosyan was slugging point-for-point with Aragon until the fourth round, when Martirosyan says he got overexcited by the prospect of an upset.

 

``We're Armenian. We have this thing where we get a little bit out of control in the ring,'' Martirosyan said. ``I love this sport so much. The coaches have told me to calm down, just think about points instead of trying to get the guy out of there.''

 

After a slow first minute against Meskine, Martirosyan landed the first of many shots to the Algerian's head. Martirosyan then staggered him with a beautiful left hand early in the third round.

 

That punch effectively ended the fight. Meskine retreated to full-scale defense while Martirosyan chased. Martirosyan scored 16 points in the final round, putting his whole body behind his blows in a vain effort to flatten Meskine.

 

Perhaps that Armenian instinct hasn't completely been coached out of him -- and it will serve him well as a professional.

 

But first things first: Martirosyan finished third in the Athens Test Event, and he isn't keen on keeping that prize.

 

``I brought that bronze medal back so I could take the gold,'' he said.

[Armen]

http://sports.yahoo.com/oly/photo?slug=oly...ybox209&prov=ap

 

A photo from the Martirosyan vs Meskine

[VanSystems]

Go HAYASTAN!

[Armen]

I kinda feel like he has won the medal already. And this whole story is gradually turning into a melodrama

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Los Angeles Times

Aug 18 2004

 

Dad's in His Corner

Vanes Martirosyan's immigrant father gave him a love of boxing and a

belief in the American dream. Now the son wants to give him a medal.

 

By Diane Pucin, Times Staff Writer

 

 

ATHENS - Norik Martirosyan lost a hand in a grenade explosion, so he

uses his other one when he's smoking cigarettes, one after another.

It is an old, unhealthy habit and Martirosyan's son, Vanes, has

begged his father to stop.

 

So Martirosyan said, "Vanes, if you win the Western boxing trials and

qualify for the Olympic trials, I'll stop smoking."

 

When Vanes won those trials, Norik said, "Vanes, if you qualify for

the Olympic team, I'll stop smoking."

 

When Vanes won the Olympic trials after the two favorites in his

weight class were disqualified in controversial circumstances, Norik

said, "Vanes, if you win a gold medal, I'll quit smoking."

 

So here he is, Vanes Martirosyan of Glendale, an 18-year-old

underdog, son of an Armenian immigrant, in love with the home cooking

of his mother and the rap music of America and determined to win an

Olympic gold medal in the 152-pound welterweight class so that his

father will quit smoking. And for one other reason.

 

"For all the time I have been boxing," Vanes said, "my father has

told me what a lucky boy I am to be growing up in the United States,

where we have freedoms to do what we want and be what we want. He has

told me, since I can remember, that there would be no greater honor

for a sportsman such as me to win a gold medal to honor our country.

The United States is our country now."

 

"Yes," said Norik Martirosyan, his younger brother Serge translating

Norik's Armenian words. "It would be our gift to the United States.

>From Vanes and from Norik, our gift."

 

Martirosyan will fight 2003 Pan American Games gold medalist Lorenzo

Aragon of Cuba in the second round today. Martirosyan out-pointed

Benamar Meskine of Algeria in the first round.

 

At the Olympic trials, Andre Berto was disqualified - he later joined

Haiti's Olympic team - for a flagrant foul that injured his opponent,

Juan McPherson. Berto and McPherson were considered the two strongest

fighters in the weight class. Berto had thrown McPherson to the mat

and sent him to the hospital with a head injury. McPherson appealed

to reenter the tournament after leaving the hospital but his appeal

was denied and Martirosyan won the trials.

 

Because of his youth and because he didn't beat the top competitors,

Martirosyan isn't given much chance to win a medal here.

 

"But that doesn't matter," Martirosyan said. "Our family has been

underdogs for a long time and what I have learned from here, so far,

is that anything can happen if you work hard."

 

In 1990, as the Soviet Union was breaking apart. Armenia and

Azerbaijan, two former republics, were readying for a war rooted in a

history of religious conflict and Norik Martirosyan was doing what he

thought was best.

 

Martirosyan was foraging in an aging Soviet bomb-making facility,

looking for repairable weapons, when he picked up a grenade. Before

he even knew what was in his hand, the thing exploded.

 

But out of that accident, a dream was born. Looking for freedom and

peace, longing for a chance to raise his three sons in a land where

they could prosper, Martirosyan decided to go to the United States

with his parents and his brother. They would join other families in

California and start over.

 

Vanes, the middle child, was 4 in 1991, when they left Armenia. Norik

had been an amateur boxer in the Soviet Union before he had to join

the Soviet army. Even when he wasn't competing, Norik would hang

around gyms, watching, learning the craft, memorizing footwork or the

way to throw a perfect jab.

 

When the family arrived in California, Norik went to work in a

family-run pizza parlor in Eagle Rock. In his free time, he took his

sons, Vahe, Vanes and Vatche, to the gym every day. Vahe eventually

gave up boxing for swimming and Vatche turned to soccer. But Vanes,

the most inexhaustible of the boys, the fiercest competitor and the

son most tuned to the father's love of boxing and America, stuck with

boxing.

 

"It gave me pride and it was a great outlet for my energy," he said.

"It was a way to be so close with my father because he was always my

coach. He had learned boxing under the Soviet and European style and

then he spent so much time studying at home the American style. In

his head, my dad put together both styles to teach me the best."

 

Early this year, Vanes was ranked only 14th in the country in his

weight class. Then he went 5-0 at the Western qualifier in

Bakersfield.

 

"My dad stopped smoking for a moment," Vanes said. "But then he

started again. When I won the Olympic trials, he stopped again - but

has started up again. I think it's his way to motivate me more for

the gold medal. He promises, no more cigarettes if I win."

 

Norik said he wouldn't smoke anymore, medal or no medal.

 

"I believed when I saw my son walking inside the Olympic boxing

arena," Norik said, "I believed that in the USA, everybody's dream

can come true. I believed the world is mine now. And my son's. So,

yes, I will quit smoking."

[hytga]

when is his next fight?