Frank Martin had anything but one-way traffic tonight on Showtime, edging a close unanimous decision over Artem Harutyunyan in their WBC lightweight eliminator from Las Vegas.
Martin (18-0, 12 KO) got the nod on scores of 114-113, 115-112, and 115-112. Bad Left Hook unofficially scored the fight 114-113 for Martin, with the difference coming in the 12th round.
In that final round, Harutyunyan (12-1, 7 KO) was forced to take a knee, saying later it was an eye injury that made him need a moment to recover as Martin pressed forward. That 10-8 round edge the fight to Martin for us, and on one of the official cards.
Martin, 28, is now officially in line for one of the belts held by undisputed champion Devin Haney, but we saw some real chinks in the armor this evening, as the 32-year-old Harutyunyan’s style occasionally gave Martin fits.
In short, when Martin let his hands go, he looked really good, but there were times that Harutyunyan was able to use good head movement to sort of freeze Martin up, and Martin struggled often to cut off the ring.
But you saw when Martin got aggressive, it was a different story. He had three really big rounds that swung the official punch stats heavily in his favor, and the rest of the fight was quite close, with some rounds that Harutyunyan definitely won if not totally dominant in the way Martin was in his big three.
The jury is still a bit out on Martin, then, in terms of being a true elite tier lightweight, and that is why you fight the fights and climb the ladder. He got some stuff he can work on from this fight, or at least the notice that he’s going to need to do that to hang with the big dogs at 135.
“My reaction time just wasn’t on-point tonight,” Martin admitted post-fight. “He’s definitely a tough opponent.”
Martin said he didn’t know why his timing was off, but one theory could be that Harutyunyan’s style knocked his timing off a little bit.
“He’s definitely tough, I hit him with some good shots,” he continued. “He stood up. I take my hat off to him because he took some big shots. … I didn’t land as many body shots as I normally, and he stood in there and it was a good fight.”
“I still want all the champions. I still want all the top guys,” he said.
“Congratulations to Frank Martin. He’s a good fighter, but I saw every punch from him,” Harutyunyan said. “The last round my eye got hurt very bad, and I had to take a few seconds to recover. I think that round was what gave it to him. It was only my eye, and I think it’s hurt badly. I don’t know, the doctor has to (check) it first.”
“I don’t agree, but I want to come back. If it’s possible, I would fight him again,” he added. “He’s just a fighter. He’s not Errol Spence. I’m a big fan of Errol Spence. I want to go further, my plan is to become a world champion, or at least fight for the world title, maybe against Devin Haney or Gervonta Davis.”
Martin vs Harutyunyan highlights
Undercard highlights and results
- Elvis Rodriguez TKO-7 Viktor Postol (0:53): A good showing here for Rodriguez (15-1-1, 13 KO), who just sort of overpowered Postol and at times really looked like he has matured a bit as a fighter and has started to fix some of the things that held him back sometimes before. Notably, he threw more punches, didn’t get lulled against the 39-year-old veteran Postol (31-5, 12 KO), and didn’t give Viktor the chance to work away easily with basic boxing.
Postol did win a couple rounds here, he wasn’t helpless, but when Elvis started landing the power shots after getting his own jab working, he was just the better fighter. An encouraging outing for the 27-year-old Dominican southpaw, and he had Postol busted up, possibly broke his nose, and dropped him in round six before getting the stoppage early in the seventh.
- Freudis Rojas Jr TKO-7 Diego Santiago Sanchez (0:58): Rojas is an interesting-looking prospect, 6’2” at 147 lbs and not crazy skinny in the legs or anything to achieve that, he’s pretty sturdily built for those dimensions. He is also 24, which isn’t all that young for 11 fights in (11-0, 11 KO), and Sanchez (19-3, 16 KO) had nothing here other than toughness. This really was a true prelims sort of fight, which is what it was meant to be before PBC moved Donaire vs Santiago to July 29. But Rojas is someone to think about at 147, and he’s got Sampson Lewkowicz behind him, and whenever Lewkowicz is there, you have to mention that he’s the guy who sort of brought Manny Pacquiao and Sergio Martinez to the forefront originally. You have to! It’s required by law! And even if Rojas doesn’t turn out to be a great world champion, Sampson has had lots of other fighters that others missed on and turned into quality contenders and titleholders.