In a fight for his life, Vanes Martirosyan says, ‘I’m trying to buy time’

Vanes Martirosyan didn’t flinch at the most rigorous tests a boxer of his size could sign up for over the past decade-plus.

Martirosyan went the distance with undisputed junior-middleweight champion Jermell Charlo and middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade, battled current middleweight champion Erislandy Lara to a draw and decision loss in two bouts, and even volunteered to take a short-notice middleweight-title assignment versus a prime Gennadiy Golovkin.

“Fighting isn’t dangerous to me, it’s fun,” Martirosyan told BoxingScene. “I’d fight ‘GGG’ (Golovkin) tomorrow. I’d do that any day.”

If only he could … .

Following six months of intense pain and antibiotics treatment, Martirosyan, 38, underwent a biopsy that left him diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma cancer.

Upon consultations with doctors at cancer institutes at USC, UCLA, the City of Hope and Houston’s prestigious MD Anderson Cancer Center, Martirosyan, of Glendale, California, was told soberly by two of the specialists that the cancer was spreading toward his lymph nodes, assessing, “If you want to save your life, you’ll need to undergo surgery right now,” he recalled.

The news stopped Martirosyan in his tracks.

Married for 20-plus years to Gaby Tsao and readying for the October birthdays of his son, Andrew (13), and daughter, Arianna (12), Martirosyan couldn’t shake what this meant: chemotherapy, surgery and the end of life as he knew it.

“I couldn’t help it … I started crying and visualized my funeral – what about my kids, all the people I’d leave behind? It’s very scary,” Martisroyan said.

“You know, in fighting, we have protection – the ringside doctor, an ambulance on standby, the referee. With cancer, we don’t have any protection. What if it gets worse? I have no control over this.”

Martirosyan and his wife resolved they would exert whatever control they have by devoting themselves to the study of his cancer, including treatment options.

Something about one doctor scheduling surgery for son Andrew’s birthday on October 24 stood as a bad omen to Martirosyan while Gaby investigated a rigorous course of treatments including 10 “rounds” of weekly chemotherapy treatments at a Mexico facility in Tijuana known as “Hope 4 Cancer.”

Martisroyan underwent Round 1 Wednesday and is scheduled for Round 2 next Wednesday.

“If I did surgery right now, they’d go in there and cut out all my cancer – everything they see,” he said. “Here in Tijuana, they start with medicine and treatments. We read a lot of stories and know people who went this route.

“From my way of thinking, my body made the cancer. Now, my body can get rid of it. It’s just like a 12-round fight. I take things day by day, round by round.”

Martirosyan said he experienced minimal discomfort after last week’s chemotherapy session and is hopeful the strength he built through boxing gives him the health required for this intense battle.

Martirosyan retired following his second-round knockout loss to Golovkin in 2018, when he stepped in for a replacement spring fight that the then-middleweight champion wanted after the performance-enhancing-substance suspension of Canelo Alvarez following he and Golovkin’s September 2017 draw.

“I’m sorry for how I looked in my last fight … it wasn’t my best. I really only had two weeks to prepare,” Martirosyan said. “But I think it’s fair to say I always tried to give the fans a show.”

Born in Russia and moved to California by his amateur-boxer father at age four, Martirosyan became a 2004 US Olympian at age 18 alongside gold-medalist and fellow Californian Andre Ward.

Nicknamed “The Nightmare,” he attracted wide support from the Armenian community around Glendale and Top Rank used him to headline local shows as Martirosyan climbed the ranks by getting off the canvas to defeat Kassim Ouma in 2010 and Saul Roman in 2011, advancing to meet Lara in 2012.

The bout was called a technical draw after Martirosyan was badly cut over the left eye by an accidental head butt in the WBC junior-middleweight eliminator.

Martirosyan returned in 2013 to knock down eventual middleweight champion Andrade in the first round of their bout before losing the WBO title fight by split-decision.

In Glendale, he trained under Edmond Tarverdyan, who also cornered Martirosyan’s high-profile friend and stablemate, then-UFC champion Ronda Rousey.

Martirosyan called it quits with a 36-4-1 record that included 21 knockouts.

Thanks to a series of good investments earned from bouts held by Top Rank, Premier Boxing Champions and Don King, Martirosyan said he has already funded the Tijuana cancer treatment and is hopeful he can weather the medical bills.

World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman of Mexico called Martirosyan over the weekend to check on him and said he would work to secure funds from a WBC fund to help the boxer with his medical expenses.

Martirosyan is itching to return to his son’s side to continue helping him train in boxing and jiu jitsu, while exploring the dream of opening his Vanes Martirosyan Boxing Academy.

“Once I’m healed, that will happen,” he said. “Financially, I’m OK. I have enough money. Money doesn’t bother me. It’s time. I’m trying to buy time.

“This fight sucks.”

He’s struggling to sleep, waking often in the dark of night to look out his facility window to an ocean view, listening to the repeating crash of the waves.

“I just pray to God to cure me … I pray for a miracle. The doctors tell me this is so rare, that it afflicts only one per cent of people,” Martirosyan said. ”You know, my brother died of a heart attack at 40 last year. My mom and dad have already reserved their (burial) places to be next to him. I told them I don’t want to be the next one in there.”

If the chemotherapy and treatment prove ineffective, Martirosyan said he will then consider surgery.

When Sulaiman broke the news of Martirosyan’s plight by posting a photo of him mid-treatment on social media, it opened a flood of support from the boxing family.

Australian boxer Billy Dib, who was stricken with stomach cancer two years ago, reached out with best wishes, and an onslaught of fans sent supportive thoughts.

“Those messages keep me going,” Martirosyan said. “It’s good to know people care. I wish everyone out there the best, especially any of those going through an illness.”