Vanes Martirosyan made his debut with Goossen Tutor Promotions on ESPN Friday Night Fights recently, beating Mario Lozano handily over 10 rounds on March 21 in Cabazon, California. Martirosyan (34-1-1, 21 KO) had seen his career still a good bit over the last few years, but he says a lot of that simply came from being a Top Rank fighter, where he couldn't get the fights he really wanted.
"The thing with Top Rank was they had too many problems with other people. They were holding me back from making big fights with other promoters. I fight for my family, and I trained hard to get to this point in my career, and when the big fights came, they were always passing on the opportunity, because they had problems with other promoters," Martirosyan told Radio Rahim of SecondsOut and MaxBoxing.
Asked what fights he wanted that he couldn't get, Martirosyan predictably named fighters signed to Golden Boy and/or with Al Haymon.
"The Lara rematch, Canelo, Austin Trout. Everybody at 154 is not with Top Rank, they're with other promoters. The best thing about Dan is he works with everybody," Martirosyan said.
Martirosyan also switched trainers, going from Freddie Roach to Joe Goossen, and says that he still has a good relationship personally with Roach, but he just wasn't able to work closely enough with Freddie.
"We need 100% dedication from the trainers. Freddie's a good trainer, but he never gave me 100% of his time. He needed to train other fighters. At this stage of my career, I needed a promoter that's good with everybody, and I needed a trainer that's 100% focused on me," Martirosyan said.
"Everybody knows Freddie's a great trainer. I respect him. I love Freddie a lot, but he didn't give me the attention I deserve. We're cool, we're friends outside of the ring. But in the gym, he always had to train somebody else. Manny Pacquiao, or somebody else. That was always affecting me. That's why I made the move to Joe Goossen, a trainer that's 100% dedicated to me. I should have been with him from day one, because his style and my style, we clicked really naturally."
Full interview with Radio Rahim: