Angulo Rubbishes Martirosyan For Turning Down WBC Title Eliminator

It was going to be a November to remember for boxing fans, as Mexican knockout artist Alfredo Angulo was scheduled to make his return to the HBO airwaves for a WBC title elimination bout against unbeaten Vanes Martirosyan in a dynamite matchup of former Olympians…or so fight fans thought.

Instead, Angulo and his promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, are left looking for a new opponent after Martirosyan turned the fight down.

“On one hand I’m shocked, but on the other, this doesn’t really surprise me,” said Angulo, who returned to the ring in August after a year long layoff, knocking out Joseph Gomez in 84 seconds.

“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.”

The bout was tentatively scheduled to take place in Cancun, Mexico on November 5 and was slated to be aired by HBO, giving both fighters the platform every top level fighter craves. In this case however, it was only Angulo who craved it.

“We offered him everything in this fight, 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,” said Angulo. “I guess he loves that 30-0 record more than actually fighting real fights against real fighters.”