Vanes Martirosyan Brawled His Way to an Emotional Win Over Willie Nelson

Vanes Martirosyan didn’t need any extra motivation going into his fight Saturday against up-and-coming Clevelander Willie Nelson – defending his WBO inter-continental light middleweight title was more than enough reason to get up for the fight. Sadly, though, Martirosyan’s promoter, Dan Goossen, died September 29 from liver cancer at age 64. Martirosyan is extremely close with the Goossen family (Dan’s brother, Joe, is Martirosyan’s trainer), and as soon as he learned of Dan Goossen’s death, he knew who he was fighting for on Saturday:

"“The second we heard it, we all, my wife, my mother, we all started crying. But in a way, we’re happy that we get to fight Saturday night and dedicate this victory to Dan Goossen.”"

And Martirosyan did just that.

It didn’t come easily, but Martirosyan left the ring with a tightly contested but unanimous decision victory – 96-94, 97-93, and 97-93.

Nelson got his licks in:

But Martirosyan got more.

The final stats were close: Martirosyan landed 194 of 625 punches overall for a 31 percent success rate, while Nelson came in just behind with 185 out of 608 landed (30 percent). Where Martirosyan dominated was in power punches: he landed 158 of 375 (42 percent) compared to just 105 of 329 (32 percent) for Nelson. Those punches did enough damage to make him the clear victor.

And there was no question to whom he’d dedicate his victory: