VANES MARTIROSYAN vs ANGEL HERNANDEZ

Unbeaten junior middleweight Vanes Martirosyan takes another carefully planned step forward in his career with a scheduled 10-rounder against Chicago veteran Angel Hernandez to open up the Versus show on Thursday.

Martirosyan, 22, impressively stopped the smaller, hittable Michi Munoz in three rounds in his last fight. Hernandez is a step up for him. The 32-year-old “Toro” has always been a tough, game fighter whose style is to crowd his opponents and throw lots of punches. He has been able to outwork some good-quality fighters and five years ago he was very competitive with Kassim Ouma, who at the time was at the top of his form.

I am not sure how much Hernandez really has his heart in boxing these days, though. He has boxed only three times since being widely outpointed by Winky Wright in a junior middleweight title challenge in November 2003. He is, however, coming into Thursday’s bout on a positive note, having had a good win in his last fight when he outpointed a previously unbeaten boxer last November.

Martirosyan is highly unlikely to slip up at this stage of his career, though. He is getting stronger, punching harder and improving technically. Fights such as the one with Hernandez come into the category of learning fights. The Mexican-born veteran has been stopped only once in 34 fights, when he was cut over the eye against Rhoshii Wells, so Martirosyan at least should be taken some rounds although he looks a certain winner. I think that Martirosyan will gradually break down the durable veteran with sharp, hard jabs, hooks, right hands and uppercuts and I will be surprised if the fight goes 10 rounds. I think Martirosyan can win by stoppage around the seventh.