SecondsOut
Sept 6 2008
Munroe Beats Martirosian to Retain European 122 Belt
By Wayne Bartlett: Rendall Munroe is still the European super
bantamweight champion after a unanimous points win over tough Armenian
Arsen Martirosyan in Nottingham.
Despite a fast and spirited start from the unknown import which saw
the defending champ face uncomfortable moments and take some good
shots from his shorter relentless foe – by the halfway mark it was the
5 ft 7 in tall Munroe in the ascendancy.
The Leicester southpaw finally finding the room to operate following
the former pressure, the stocky 31 year old Martirosyan was now
blowing hard after his previous efforts.
Munroe – only too happy to take advantage of his opponent’s fatigue,
proceeded to target the body and was on the brink of stopping the
French based Armenian in round eight with a sustained assault.
Credit to the resilience of the teak tough challenger however, as not
only did the shorter Martirosyan survive the crisis but also survived
through to the final bell in the face of what was by the end a
dominant champion.
Munroe, 28 years old, just couldn’t find the punches to bring an early
end to the bout but he was more than pleased with the end result in
what turned out to be a tough fight against an unknown quantity such
was the lack of video of any of Martirosyan`s previous bouts.
`We went in there you might as well say blindfolded, we didn’t know
nothing about him (Martirosyan), we just went in there and took it as
it came really’ said Munroe in the post fight interview.
Unanimous scorecards of 115-113, 117-112 and 115-114 all read in
favour of the now 16-1(7) EBU champion Munroe with the gritty visitor
dropping to 12-2(3).
Talking of the near future, Munroe’s promoter Frank Maloney stated
possible plans for his charge to face 26-1 Irish former European
champion Bernard Dunne, in what would be a potentially cracking battle
of Britain.
`We would like to have Bernard Dunne if he saw this, he’s made a lot
of noise the offers there for him if not we’ll take someone else so
he’s got until Monday to respond to the fax that’s been sent to his
management team’ said Maloney.