Martirosyan vs Lara rematch headed to purse bid on Friday

Vanes Martirosyan and Erislandy Lara disappointed audiences with a dull fight that went to a technical draw in November, and now, they're probably going to do it again. Like the first fight, it would be a WBC junior middleweight eliminator, and the bout is up for purse bid on Friday.

Martirosyan (32-0-1, 20 KO) is promoted by Top Rank, while Lara (17-1-2, 11 KO) is with Golden Boy. That would make it seem a miracle that their first fight ever got made at all, and would seem to serve as a warning that a rematch won't, but neither company seems particularly sure of what to do with either man. Martirosyan spent a long time building a fluff record in bad fights, and Lara has had trouble getting good opponents since he clearly beat but was robbed against Paul Williams in 2011.

Lara also has no fan base whatsoever, and Martirosyan probably could draw a decent crowd somewhere near Glendale, California, where he resides, he's only fought in California once in his last ten fights.

Lara was "loaned out," more or less, to Top Rank in November, and if Top Rank takes the purse bid for this matchup -- which should probably be expected -- there's probably no reason Golden Boy won't let Lara fight on their card again, whenever the fight might actually take place.

As a fight, it proved to be a pretty awful style clash the first time around, and there's no great reason to think they'd mesh any better a second time around, but both might be a little more comfortable about opening up offensively, having seen the other man first-hand now.

The first fight aired on HBO, and was supposed to be a co-feature but wound up a replacement main event when Salido-Garcia fell through. It's worth wondering if the network would have any real interest in airing the rematch, but it could probably be stuck on a Top Rank undercard somewhere and find a home, even if it wound up on a pay-per-view card.