On a night Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara successfully defended his WBA Super Welterweight Championship with a hard-fought 12-round unanimous decision over Vanes “The Nightmare” Martirosyan, undefeated brothers Jermall and Jermell Charlo, of Houston, became the first twins in boxing history to hold world titles in the same weight class.
Lara outpointed Martirosyan in the main event by the scores of 116-111 twice and 115-112. There were no knockdowns. Martirosyan had a point deducted for a low blow in the 11th in a rematch of a May 2012 fight that ended in a technical draw.
#LaraMartirosyan Highlights… #Boxing pic.twitter.com/J77iZPdf29
— RoundByRoundBoxing (@RBRBoxing) May 22, 2016
SHOWTIME’s Steve Farhood called the Lara vs. Martirosyan rematch “a typical Lara fight.”
“As usual Lara’s style is extremely difficult for the judges to score,” Farhood said. “He’s so selective with his punches, yet he lands such a high percentage of them. And to make it even more difficult, a lot of Martirosyan’s body punches were blocked. The judges agreed on seven of the 12 rounds. It clearly was a close fight and what got Lara over the top was the 10-8 score in round 11.
“We benefit from the use of replay. Watching the punch that brought the deduction on replay, I believe that it wasn’t a low blow.
“Lara did what Lara does. Martirosyan fought about as well as he could. The difference was Lara’s accuracy and ring generalship. I think Martirosyan’s competitiveness made it a good fight.”
Lara, 33, was making his fourth title defense. “This is normal,” said Lara who landed 60 percent of the 160-plus power punches. “This is boxing, not baseball. Low blows and headbutts happen. I’m a very intelligent fighter and at no point did I feel this fight was going to be lost.
“My mother and kids are still there so it would be a great privilege to go fight in my native Cuba. Everything is possible in this world. I didn’t think I’d be champion of the world and here I am.
“I want to tell Team Vanes thank you for giving me the rematch. I’m ready to fight anybody. I’d like to fight Canelo.
“The Charlo brothers are my teammates and having three of us going back as champions is a great thing.”
Martirosyan, the aggressor throughout, disputed the decision.
“I was chasing him all night,” he said. “I put on the pressure. I thought I did enough to win. That was not a low blow. Replays show the trunks were high.
“I never ducked anyone. No one wanted to fight Lara. I stepped up and fought him again. I’ll fight anyone.”
[slideshow_deploy id=’62696′]
Photos by Stephanie Trapp/Mayweather Promotions
