Ex-Olympic boxer Vanes Martirosyan dies at age 39

Former Olympic boxer Vanes Martirosyan has died.

The World Boxing Council confirmed in a social media post on Sunday that Martirosyan has died at the age of 39. While no official cause of death was given, Manouk Akopyan of Ring Magazine notes that Martirosyan was diagnosed with skin cancer two years ago.

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman also suggested in a statement that Martirosyan died from cancer.

“I’m deeply saddened by the news of Vanes Martirosyan, who lost his battle to cancer,” Sulaiman said, via Ryan Gaydos of FOX News. “Vanes was a proud WBC silver champion and a dear friend. My sincere condolences to his family and friends.”

Martirosyan competed in the lightweight and middleweight divisions and was a three-time world title challenger. The Armenian native moved to California when he was 7 years old and represented Team USA at the 2004 Olympics, where he defeated Algeria’s Benamar Meskine in the first round and lost to Cuba’s Lorenzo Aragón in the second.

Martirosyan turned professional in 2006 and had a record of 36-4-1 with 21 knockouts. He won the first 32 fights of his career. His final bout came in 2018, when Gennady Golovkin knocked out Martirosyan in the second round to retain his WBA, WBC and IBO middleweight title belts.