In a Showtime televised bout prior to the pay-per-view portion main card of the Floyd Mayweather vs. Andre Berto undercard live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Vanes “The Nightmare” Martirosyan (36-2-1 21KOs) defeated Ishe “Sugar Shay” Smith (27-8 12KOs) with the scores of 95-95,97-91,97-91.

The first two rounds favored Smith though honestly it was anyone’s guess as ringside it was hard to tell who was more active , but it appeared that Smith who found a home with left to the body right to the head was just a bit ahead of Vanes. In the late stage of the third round, Martirosyan dropped Smith at the bell with a punch that appeared to be in the back of the head which was ruled a knockdown. In the middle duration it appeared that Maritrosyan had made a subtle adjustment that seemed to stump Smith, but that was all for not as Smith appeared to have rallied back making a pair of competitive rounds as both we giving as well as taking.

In the eighth, Martirosyan dropped Smith as Smith became careless running at Marirosyan who floored him with a straight right that Smith barely beat the count from. The last two rounds reflected the first two as it was essentially neither man’s round and came down to what stylistically you prefer.

The fight seems to set up a bout between Vanes Martirosyan and Jermall Charlo who won the IBF junior middleweight today on NBC. Martirosyan earlier lost to Jermall Charlo’s brother, Jermell, in a very close bout earlier this year.

The fight also had an interesting subplot as Martirosyan trained with Victor Conte for his strength and conditioning whereas Ishe Smith trained with Conte’s arch nemesis Angel “Memo” Heredia