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 take a chance with him?
Vanes Martirosyan: Everybody said that Don King is a piece of shit, a bad promoter, a snake, he’s the devil. 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 beat him. I beat Berto, I beat Willy Nelson and Willy Nelson knocked out Tony Harrison who 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 those guys.
I really don’t know how people can still sign with Don King. He has a massive history of ripping fighters off. The only guy that seems to pay anyone, is Al Haymon.
Wait, Don King is crooked? If there was only some way Vanes could have known before signing with him….
Vanes is a really good fight, but he just has never been able to win the biggest fights. I am actually surprised he is only 32, hes been around for a long time.
Sad to see this happening to a contender…but part of me is like everyone knows about don king and how terrible of a promoter he has been. He burns fighters and takes their money through different schemes time and time again…why would you sign with this guy? Vanes admitted he knew better. All that being said, I hope he has one last decent/good run in him before he hangs them up.
Sounds like Vanes will be out of retirement by next week
Crocodile Tears Vanes. Three Strikes You’re out. At least King gave you a purse and you’re complaining about the tax? You’re just a crying ass hoe like Paulie Malignaggi. Who’s the 4th Promoter you cry next? Go sign with Loeffler or make a Promotional Company with him “LA Has Beens”
No need to be a disrepesctful príck. Vanes is a good person.
I hope PBC will sign him again
So he split 400K from the GGG fight with Don King down the middle (50/50) and ended up with 160K and King with 225K.. That isn’t 50/50! And then King tried to get Vanes to pay for the taxes on the money he (King) took! You really can’t make this sh it up. And re-the WBC what does he expect? They made him the mandatory at 154 and he expects a title shot? Mate you would wait forever to get your shot, just look at Breazeale.
even 50/50 is insane. Pretty sure the legal maximum a promoter can get is 35% and I don’t remember Don in the corner with an Enswell.
He got a 300k. You have to pay an advance back
Sad to see fighters treated this way, im shocked anyone in this day and age would even consider king as an associate let alone promoter. The guy is a savage.
Vanes seems like a genuine person but the thing with him is he seems to always get into it with everyone! As far as I know he’s publicly fuededvwith Al haymon, Goldenboy, Alex Arriza and he had a real hard on for Canelo! He comes across as someone who agrees to terms that don’t benefit him with the hope that on the next one he’ll get taken care of and he’s a good boxer but what frustrated me about him is how he took jabs about Canelos performance in fight one, he called Canelo out on his running and he probably found out the hard way that that should’ve been his exact plan when he (martirosyan) fought Golovkin! That was stupid of him to try to go Toe to Toe! In a way it’s hard to feel sorry for someone he makes this many bad choices
I’m a fan of Vanes
Was willing to fight anyone , Seems like a good dude and always honest but he has a tendency to bite the mouth that feeds him
Vanes complained about his lack of activity under Haymon and he had a valid point but why he chose to sign with King after ,who’s fighters are lucky to fight once every 2 years is beyond me. Seems like the worst decision to make career wise
Sh.itty that it sounds like he’s getting shafted from the industry and you’d think that after taking the Golovkin fight knowing full well it was a public execution, it would’ve created some opportunities like it did for Monroe. Hope it gets straightened out and he can get in the ring again because Vanes can probably still compete against most of the 154 guys
This is why so many sign with Al Haymon who takes a fraction of the money. Goldenboy probably 2nd best. I mean they gave ggg almost 50%. I cant see ANY other promotor doing that for another boxer not even signed with them.
Pretty sure he signed a contract.
Plus he got 300k upfront for doin nothing basically.
i don’t remember him bein mandatory, but there was a mandatory eliminator between him and Sulecki to fight jermell.
GB pulled spike O’Sullivan off the Jacobs fight, so Haymon pulled Sulecki off the martroysian fight and put him in against Jacobs.
I always wondered where that left Martroysian. Is that how he was mandatory?
The whole point of the Ali Act is the protect the fighter’s business, self worth, more than anything. That goes for any promotor low balling. The fighters comes first. This is why Al Haymon is King. “Overpays fighter” doe and industry retards tried to run the narrative that Haymon was tampering with the Ali Act, but, “he overpays fighters… do he exist?” – Bob Arum
Dominic Wade was a substitution in the corrupt scheme of the IBF to allow a fighter on house arrest to compete. But Al Haymon didn’t let HBO exploit this disadvantage without letting his fighter get paid well with a 500k purse! Wade took a dive proper just like Vanes. These guys knew short notice they didn’t stand a chance, and if you’ve got a family there’s no need to play hero against a dangerous and elite foe.
Vanes left Haymon and low and behold PBC Fox and Showtime is now starting to pop.
King is a disgusting human being
I think he can be an attractive fighter again/ still. Vs GGG his lone KO loss. And….their certainly been worser defeats in history.
He needs to start at a lesser scale. His agent scan the world ratings and he simply start new. Pick up a first comeback win. And then a second. Put off going w/any budding mega stars for a time. He is courting ruining his good record. Fight a strong fight again down the line.
Far as his language and DON KING. Vanes hurting his own image only. He better off now to quiet it ALL. Talk only to a lawyer or his council.
And….if he does “turn it around” he will need to acknowledge how he lapsed and forgot his blessings. Apologize perhaps for not giving GGG better but praise the man for the star that he is. Add a note how….”I could of fought him on a better day….but I am forever grateful for that opportunity”.
It’s his image at this point.
The TAXES let your pro handle that part.
Vanes needs to call me. I have a firm that resolves IRS AND STATE tax debt and issues.
The last person any fighter should ever sign with is Don King. Everybody knows hes a lying, thieving snake. Thing is i remember when Vanes first signed to Don King after leaving the PBC he was irate cursing at people on twitter for telling him he was foolish for signing with King. He was really tryna justify signing with a known crook. It was really bizarre. No surprise it ended this way. Sucks he had to learn the hard way after everybody warned him. Hopefully he can salvage whats left of his career and still make some decent $