Vanes Martirosyan (27-0 17 KOs) preserved his unbeaten status Saturday night in controversial fashion versus former light middleweight champ, Kassim "The Dream'" Ouma ( 26-7-1, 16 KOs ).

This fight proved to be Martirosyan's toughest test yet and was seen by many as an indicator as to whether he is ready to step up and fight some bigger names. Based on this performance, he has a long way to go. However, that's taking nothing away from Ouma, as he fought tremendously well to push Vanes the distance.

From the opening bell Ouma pressured Martirosyan and had him on the back foot, Vanes countered well though and managed to land some nice combos although none of them troubled Ouma. Throughout the rounds "The Dream", ( who has a movie out based on his life story ), managed to keep the same tempo and never allowed Martirosyan a moments rest.

Halfway during the fourth Vanes left eye started to swell badly. The momentum was with Ouma throughout the fight and during the ninth he caught the Armenian with a mean punch that sent him flying.

If the challenger has to beat a champ in convincing fashion, then Ouma was certainly in with a chance of winning on the scorecards. However, it wasn't to be as the judges gave it to Martirosyan 97-93, 97-93, 97-92.

If the fight had to be decided by the crowd then Ouma would certainly have won but unfortunately for the man from Uganda it was left to the three judges who scored it somewhat controversially.


In the other fights from the night, the Freddie Roach trained Jose Benavidez showed what an exciting prospect he is with a perfect debut against Steven Cox. Benavidez knocked him down within 20 seconds of the opening bell before the referee stepped in to the stop the fight as Cox was getting seriously hurt.


Also Diego Magdaleno ( 13-0 3KOS ) was given a tough torrid time against a determined Gerardo Robles ( 9-9 5 KOs ) but managed to scrape the victory in another dodgy decision by the judges.