By Rick Reeno

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Chelsea Ballroom, Las Vegas, Nevada - In a rematch of their 2012 nine-round technical draw, WBA/IBO junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (23-2-2, 13KOs) won a twelve round unanimous decision over Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21KOs). The scores were 115-112, 116-111, 116-111.

Vanes came right out throwing some wild swings, but quickly settled down when he couldn't connect. When he stayed calm, he was able to land a decent right hand while Lara was feeling him out. The second round was very close. Both fighters were boxing cautiously and being defensive.  Lara had a slight edge with his accuracy. Lara seemed to find his groove in the third round and got more accurate with his punches. Vanes applied the pressure and seemed unbothered by anything Lara did.

Lara was on the move in the fourth. Vanes giving chase and going to the body when the head was not available. Lara kept a tight guard to block Vanes' incoming shots. Lara was having trouble getting off with his punches. In the fifth, Vanes was finding a home for his body shots, but Lara was connected with some very accurate shots to the head and they were snapping Vanes' head back. The left side of Vanes' face was rapidly swelling up.

Lara landed two big lefts to start off the sixth. Vanes quickly tired to get some payback with his counters getting blocked. Lara continued to land accurate punches to the head, while Vanes was focused on getting his punches to find the body. The seventh was a bit closer because neither fighter much of anything. The eight had Lara landing some accurate shot to the head and holding Vanes when he pressed close enough to retaliate.

Vanes was digging hard to the body in ninth, looking to create some openings in the contest. Vanes was being very aggressive and trying to land anything of note to change the tempo of the fight. Vanes continued to come forward, throwing punches in bunches to the head and body in the tenth. Lara was mostly staying defensive and picking his spots very carefully.

Vanes lost a point at the start of the eleventh round for a low blow. He had been warned several times during the contest. The pound deduction fired Vanes. He came charging after Lara and was looking to do some serious damage. At start of twelfth, there was a significant amount of swelling evident on Lara's forehead from an earlier clash of heads. Vanes was throwing his hands from all angles while trying to land a big punch. They were tainting each other for much of the round while picking their punch selections. Lara was by far the more active of the two in the final round.