Former U.S. Olympian Vanes Martirosyan (20-0, 13 KOs) of Glendale, California dropped former title challenger Angel Hernandez (28-7, 16 KOs) of Chicago, Illinois in the first and completely dominated him over the course of ten rounds in a light middleweight bout. Martirosyan, 155, consistently landed solid shots to the body and head of Hernandez, who never got in any sort of rhythm. Midway through Hernandez, 155, seemed content to clown around rather than attempt winning the fight. Martirosyan displayed a technically sound technique, repeatedly firing the left jab and straight right hand to much success. All three judges scored the bout for Martirosyan, 100-89.

After the bout a Top Rank spokesman said, “He’s about ready to move up and go to HBO.” Martirosyan himself refused to call out any names, but said he would leave those decisions to his management. His victory was made more impressive once it was learned that Martirosyan had hurt his left hand early in the fight. “It started to hurt in the third and fourth rounds,” said Martirosyan. “It started to hurt more and more every round.” Vanes did mention that it would not cause him to lose any ring time.