Rafferty Beats Martirosyan To Win IBO Welterweight Title

Jack Rafferty won the vacant IBO world welterweight title at Manchester’s AO Arena on Saturday night, taking a unanimous decision over Hovhannes Martirosyan after 12 rounds. Matteo Montella scored it 114 to 113, while Michael Alexander and Jean Marie Natus each had it 116 to 111. Rafferty finished the stronger and was credited with the fight’s only knockdown in the closing seconds. Martirosyan got up looking considerably more aggrieved than hurt.

Rafferty, the 31-year-old from Shaw, weighed 146.9 pounds against 146 for Martirosyan, 34, from Genk. Their contest was chief support to Joshua Buatsi against Willy Hutchinson on Frank Warren’s Queensberry bill, shown on DAZN. A brawl among spectators at floor level brought security into the crowd early in the contest. The affected section was cleared while the two men who had been paid to box carried on.

Rafferty had held the British and Commonwealth titles at junior welterweight and drawn with Mark Chamberlain before moving up. In May he had forced Ekow Essuman to retire in his corner and taken the WBA Continental Gold belt. Martirosyan had won IBO regional titles and came in off a second-round knockout of Michal Dufek in April. Pierce O’Leary had inflicted his only previous defeat, and this was his first fight at welterweight.

Rafferty started behind his jab and did most of the advancing, but Martirosyan landed the best single shots of the first round with his counter right. One stiffened Rafferty’s legs. The Belgian could give ground a step at a time and still have his feet in place to punch when Rafferty came after him. The second was quieter. Rafferty raised the pace in the third, though he was still having to work his way past the right hand to get close enough to put punches together.

Martirosyan was still picking off the man coming towards him in the fourth. Rafferty edged nearer in the fifth, keeping the jab in Martirosyan’s face and catching some of the replies on his gloves. Then Martirosyan gave him a different problem. A left hook to the body hurt Rafferty in the sixth and made him hold. Martirosyan landed 22 punches in that round, his best of the fight, and found openings to the head and body when he put his shots together.

Rafferty pressed again at the start of the seventh, but Martirosyan came back with body punches and the overhand right. The eighth was fought in spells. Rafferty backed him towards the ropes, but Martirosyan answered and landed a shade more often in the round. In the ninth, Rafferty’s jab began to get through more regularly. Martirosyan was having to spend longer under fire before he could come back with anything of his own.

Rafferty came through a hard tenth with a cut over his right eye and the better of the exchanges. In the eleventh, he worked both sides of the body and had Martirosyan sagging into the ropes late in the round. The Belgian was giving ground again in the twelfth when he went backwards through the ropes in the final ten seconds. A right hand came in as the men closed together, and referee John Latham ruled a knockdown. Martirosyan shook his head at the count, got to his feet and finished the fight. A one-point swing would have levelled Montella’s card, with the other two still in Rafferty’s favour.

The CompuBox round figures show where the fight got away from Martirosyan. He led 97 to 89 in punches landed through eight, but Rafferty outlanded him 110 to 64 over the last four. Rafferty finished with 199 landed from 786 thrown to Martirosyan’s 161 from 728. He landed 78 jabs to 45 and 71 body punches to 43. The margin in power punches was tighter, 121 to 116.

“These fans got me through tonight,” Rafferty said in the ring. He said he had watched all of Martirosyan’s fights and gave him credit for the shape he had brought to this one. Martirosyan called Rafferty a good boxer. Rafferty arrived with 27 wins and a draw and now has 28 wins, 18 inside the distance. Martirosyan leaves with 20 wins, 12 by knockout, and two defeats. Rafferty is looking towards the leading welterweights, and those last four rounds made a better case for him than the disputed count.

I fancied Rafferty to get him out of there late. I got the winner right and did Martirosyan a disservice on the finish. You could see against Pierce O’Leary that the man could give ground and still have his feet under him to punch. Early on, Jack was doing the walking, but Martirosyan was landing cleaner. That counter right was waiting for him whenever he came in from too far out.

The left hook to the body in the sixth told me Martirosyan had more than one answer. Jack had to grab hold and buy himself a few seconds. What I liked was how he got back to his jab. Once he was landing it from a step closer, he could get at the ribs without having to reach. By the eleventh, he was working both sides of the body and making Martirosyan defend for longer than he could afford. That was the hard part of the fight, and Jack did his best work there.

I’d have waved away the knockdown. There was a right hand in there, but the shove through the ropes had more to do with the fall for me. I still had Rafferty winning. Martirosyan made him earn it, and the rounds Jack put together before that count were worth more to me than anything the referee did in the last few seconds.