Vanes wants to deck champ in sparring

MANILA, Philippines - Vanes Martirosyan, undefeated in 28 fights, vowed to succeed where many others have failed.

The American boxer with Armenian descent, scheduled to come in and join Manny Pacquiao’s training camp, said he’d be the first to knock down the Filipino champion in sparring.

Freddie Roach has offered $1,000 to anyone who can put Pacquiao down in sparring. The offer actually came many fights ago but until now no one has come close to winning.

“I am up to Freddie’s challenge. I will be the first to drop Manny,” Martirosyan told fighthype.com.

The 24-year-old veteran of the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he represented the United States, is no stranger to Pacquiao, being one of the regulars at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.

He is expected to arrive anytime to join Michael Medina and Glen Tapia as sparring partners. Amir Khan, the reigning WBA super-welterweight champ, flew in the other day and is now in Baguio.

But Khan is not actually here as a sparring partner, but to train for his own fight scheduled Dec. 11 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is also being lined up as a sparring partner for Pacquiao.

Medina and Tapia, both as big, as tall as Margarito, have alternated on Pacquiao the past two weeks in 19 rounds of sparring, although neither of them had come even close to the $1,000 prize.

Can Martirosyan put Pacquiao down even in sparring?

“I respect Manny a lot and I have learned a lot from him. He’s a great fighter but I feel I am up to the challenge,” said the fighter who had knocked out 17 of his 28 opponents.

“That is why I always say I want to fight the best. I want to prove how good I am,” he said.

If given the chance to spar with Pacquiao, Khan said he’d go for it as well. He even recalled the time he was up in the ring with the hard-hitting Filipino during a previous camp.

Khan said he could take Pacquiao’s best punch.

“I’ve taken Manny Pacquiao’s hardest shot in sparring when he weighed 152 lb and he’s not put me down. He caught me a lot of times with big shots and didn’t put me down,” Khan told boxingnewsonline.