Vanes Martirosyan

Vanes Norik Martirosyan (Armenian: Վանես Մարտիրոսյան; born May 1, 1986) is an Armenian American professional boxer and world title contender. He is the current WBC Silver light middleweight champion, and is ranked the #1 contender by the WBC, #9 by BoxRec and #6 by The Ring magazine.

Early life

Vanes was born on May 1, 1986, in Abovyan, Armenia. Vanes' father, Norik Martirosyan, was a boxer in Armenia who worked for an industrial company and was also in the army. Vanes has two brothers, one older and one younger, and a sister.

His family moved to Glendale, CA when he was four years old. He started boxing when he was seven after his father found out there was a gym nearby.

Martirosyan was taken out of junior high school by his father and became home-schooled once it had become clear that he needed to keep his son's fighting confined to the ring.

Amateur career

Martirosyan was an eight-time National Champion and a Golden Gloves Champion.

In 2004, after winning a match against Haiti's Andre Berto in the 1st AIBA American 2004 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Tijuana, Mexico, Vanes secured a spot in the US Olympic Team. He represented the United States at the 2004 Olympics as a Welterweight. He was on the same olympic team as Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell.