Former world title challenger Vanes Martirosyan has a career boxing record of 36-4-1 with 21 KOs and has fought for a world title 3 times. While he has come up short in those bouts, at only 32 years old he remains a name fighter in the sport. Vanes surprised many of his fans when he recently announced on Twitter his retirement from boxing and stated his relationship with his promoter Don King as a major reason for his decision.
In this special ?On The Ropes? boxing radio interview with Vanes Martirosyan, I discuss with him his reasons for making that post and talk with him about his relationship with Don King. Vanes also gives his thoughts about his fight with Gennady Golovkin and how that fight has affected him. Additionally, Martirosyan talks about his change of heart on retiring and his desire to fight for a world title again. Here is what Vanes Martirosyan had to say.
(Click play to listen to the entire Vanes Martirosyan interview)
Jenna J: Vanes, you recently came out on twitter and announced you were retiring from boxing due to your issues with Don King and his company. For all the fans out there, can you tell them about your situation and what lead you to make that post?
Vanes Martirosyan: Outside of the boxing world, I?m going through a lot of things. I?m fed up with all the bullshit. All of the years I?ve been in boxing, I?ve seen so much BS and corruption. I got fed up and got tired of it and I decided to retire from the sport. I don?t know if a lot of people are blind and don?t see what?s going on but a lot of fighters don?t get a fair share and fighters need to speak up. I?m pretty sure there are a lot of fighters suffering from what I?m going through. I?m outspoken and I tweeted that I?m tired of it because of Don King.
Jenna J: What exactly happened with Don King to make you so disappointed with the sport?
Vanes Martirosyan: It?s not only Don King, it?s what has happened to me throughout the years. Everything has been boiling up and that day I just exploded. I?ve been through a lot of depression since the Golovkin fight. It?s really hard to always think about a fight where you know that wasn?t you in there. I still get tagged in posts of the fight and it?s a reminder every day. It?s something that I want deleted because it wasn?t me in there and at the same time I did favors for Don King. I did a favor for HBO too, the show was going to be canceled, I saved a lot of people millions of dollars and at the end I didn?t get treated the way I should have gotten treated. Don took a lot of money from that fight and I just got a 1099 for the amount that he took. He wants me to pay taxes for the money that he took from me, it?s really ridiculous.
Jenna J: There have been a lot of fighters that have complained about Don King over the years, why did you think it would be different for you?
Vanes Martirosyan: Everybody said that Don King is a piece of shit, a bad promoter, a snake. The reason I went to him alone was because I wanted him to do at least one fighter good, at least be good to one person in your life. I tried to go against everybody and I got really screwed over.
Jenna J: What was your deal to fight Gennady Golovkin suppose to pay you?
Vanes Martirosyan: When I signed with Don King, he gave me 300k as a signing bonus. When the Golovkin fight happened, he said, ?I?ve invested a lot of money in you, let me make some of that money back.? We went fifty-fifty on 400k, we split it in half. I ended up with 160k and he took 225k and he?s taxing me for the money he took. I even asked his lawyers to fix this and I still haven?t heard from them and it?s been a week and a half already.
Jenna J: You have said publicly that you want to fight again and you retired out of frustration. Do you still have a passion for boxing?
Vanes Martirosyan: The passion is still there, I want to fight. The reason why I had these dark thoughts and got upset and said those things on Twitter is because of my passion. Austin Trout I beat 3 times, the last person Timothy Bradley lost to before he turned pro, I bet him. I beat Berto, I beat Willy Nelson and Willy Nelson knocked out Tony Harrison that is a champion today, me with a full camp, at my best, I deserve to be champion. If I knew I couldn?t do it and I wasn?t good enough I would literally retire today. I have nothing against Don King or any of these people in a bad way, I just don?t know why they are treating me like this. Especially the WBC, I am really mad at the WBC, very upset at them. They are like no good, they think that they care about fighters, bullshit they care about fighters, they don?t.
Jenna J: If you are released from Don King and return to the ring again, who out there do you really want to fight?
Vanes Martirosyan: Jaime Munguia, the WBO champ, I don?t want anything to do with the WBC, Munguia is a good fight to take, Jared Hurd, all of the champions! Anybody, I?ll fight anybody, any of the top guys, any of the champions. Not at middleweight, that?s even my weight, 154 is my weight class and I want to fight Hurd or any of guys.
