Professional Career
At the age of 20, he turned professional at 154 pounds with Bob Arum's promotional company Top Rank. Vanes is managed by his uncle, Serge Martirosyan. He is also co-managed by Shelly Finkel, who also manages and advises world champions such as Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, Evander Holyfield, Manny Pacquiao, Fernando Vargas and Jeff Lacy, among others.
Vanes is trained by Freddie Roach, who was voted 2003 and 2006 Trainer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America. He trains alongside Roach's other top students: Manny Pacquiao, Julio César Chávez, Jr. and Amir Khan.
Martirosyan has also worked with Ronnie Shields, winning his first fight under Shields's tutelage when he knocked out Dan Wallace in one round. Shields has also trained: Evander Holyfield, Juan Díaz, Rocky Juarez and Pernell Whitaker.
Martirosyan subsequently scored a shutout unanimous decision over Clarence Taylor, and also recorded wins against Billy Lyell (who would later topple previously unbeaten John Duddy), Harrison Cuello, Andrey Tsurkan and Willie Lee.
Martirosyan was scheduled to make his HBO debut on June 5, 2010 in Yankee Stadium on the Miguel Cotto vs. Yuri Foreman undercard. His opponent was fellow undefeated prospect Joe Greene (22-0, 14 KOs). Martirosyan handed Greene the first loss of his career by way of unanimous decision. With this win Martirosyan, advanced to 28-0 with 17 wins coming by way of knockout.
On March 19, 2011 Vanes made his next appearance in the ring at the Bell Centre in Montreal. He got an easy win over Mexican Bladimir Hernandez by way of KO in the second round.
His next fight was against veteran Saúl Román in a WBC semi-final title eliminator for the vacant WBC Silver Light Middleweight Championship. The bout was on June 4, 2011 in HBO's televised portion of the Julio César Chávez, Jr. vs. Sebastian Zbik undercard. Román knocked Vanes down in the first round and gave him trouble in the next two. Martirosyan came back in the fourth and fifth. When the seventh round began, Román cornered Vanes against the ropes and landed several blows. Vanes may have caught Román just in time from being stopped. In the same round, Vanes trapped Román against the ropes and knocked him down. After Román got up, Vanes landed a hard right hook on his chin and followed up with a barrage of blows while Román was leaning on the ropes, causing the fight to be stopped and turning what seemed to be near-defeat into victory.
On October 29, 2011 Vanes fought contender Richard Gutierrez. Vanes dominated from start to finish and won a ten round unanimous decision. The judges' scorecards were 100-90, 100-90 and 99-91; Vanes winning all but one round from one judge.
Martirosyan fought veteran Troy Lowry on the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr vs. Marco Antonio Rubio undercard. Vanes knocked Lowry down in the first round and stopping him in the third to retain his WBC Silver title.
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