Golden Boy promoted junior-middleweight contender Alfredo Angulo is branding Top Rank fighter Vanes Martirosyan a “fake tough guy” for turning down a potential November WBC title eliminator on HBO.
Angulo, who returned from a year-long layoff due to visa and promoter issues with a 1st round KO of Joseph Gomez in August, had a tentative HBO date for November 5 in Cancun, Mexico. He believes Martirosyan, who’s been vocal in the press about his desire to face an elite-level opponent, failed to back up his words with action.
“On one hand I’m shocked, but on the other, this doesn’t really surprise me,” explained Angulo. “Vanes Martirosyan is a tough guy, but only on the internet. He calls everybody out, says he’s not getting big fights, but then when he gets offered the opportunity of a lifetime, he turns it down. He needs to get out from behind his computer where he likes to talk about me and get into the ring where he can fight me.”
While financial figures have not been released, Angulo claims that the November 5 fight would have been netted Martirosyan three times more than his highest fight purse. Martirosyan currently is the #1 rated contender for Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s WBC title. Angulo is ranked #2.
“We offered him everything in this fight,” Angulo claimed. “The winner would fight in a WBC world title fight, neutral officials so he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable about fighting in Mexico and he would have made three times more for this fight than he’s ever made before. I guess he loves that 30-0 record more than actually fighting real fights against real fighters.”
At press time, Vanes Martirosyan could not be reached for comment.
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