Frank Martin wasn’t pleased with his overall performance against Artem Harutyunyan on Saturday night.
The undefeated lightweight contender feels he waited too much during the first nine rounds. His hesitation helped Harutyunyan make their fight very competitive, but Martin became more aggressive in the 10th round and took complete control of a 12-round bout he narrowly won unanimously on the scorecards at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Martin made Harutyunyan take a knee with just under a minute remaining in the 12th round because the awkward Armenian underdog had difficulty seeing out of his severely swollen left eye. Judges Tim Cheatham (115-112), Max De Luca (115-112) and Steve Weisfeld (114-113) all scored Martin the winner of their closely contested “Showtime Championship Boxing” main event.
Though far from satisfied with how he secured the 18th win of his professional career, Martin remains confident that he would stop the undefeated, undisputed champion in his division. Martin predicted during a post-fight interview with a group of reporters that Devin Haney wouldn’t last 12 rounds with him if the Detroit native got the opportunity to challenge Haney for the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 135-pound championships.
“I’ll beat him,” Martin said. “Knockout, probably in like the eighth round.”
Haney hasn’t decided whether he’ll move up to the 140-pound division or defend his four lightweight titles in his next bout. Martin entered the ring against Harutyunyan (12-1, 7 KOs) ranked number two by the WBA, fifth by the WBC, sixth by the IBF and seventh by the WBO among lightweight contenders for Haney’s championships.
Martin (18-0, 12 KOs) does not figure to be one of the opponents Haney will seriously consider for his next fight.
The Oakland native has openly discussed facing WBC super lightweight champion Regis Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs) in his 140-pound debut. A showdown with newly crowned WBO junior welterweight champ Teofimo Lopez (19-1, 13 KOs) is seemingly the highest-profile fight for the 24-year-old Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) if he relinquishes his lightweight titles in favor of moving up.
The 28-year-old Martin, meanwhile, just wants a chance to face an elite-level lightweight, whether it’s Haney, Gervonta Davis, Shakur Stevenson or Vasiliy Lomachenko. Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs), a two-division champ from Newark, New Jersey, and Ukraine’s Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs), a three-weight world champ, are promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., which makes it less likely that those fights will become legitimate options for Martin, who is aligned with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions.
“I want all the top guys at 135, all the top guys everybody know,” Martin said. “You know, I don’t wanna keep name-dropping all these guys, but all the top, you know, top guys. I want ‘em.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.