Erik Bazinyan sits on the cusp of a world title shot at 168-pounds as he heads into battle with Billi Facundo Godoy on Thursday night in Montreal.
The 28 year old fighting out of Laval, Quebec headlines against Argentine veteran, Godoy, at the Montreal Casino live on ESPN+. Bazinyan currently occupies a top five position within all of the governing bodies, and is No. 2 in the WBA.
Bazinyan (31-0, 22 KOs) follows the likes of Jean Pascal, Adonis Stevenson and Artur Beterbiev as a non-national fighter being adopted by Quebec. However, Bazinyan landed on Canadian shores long before his professional boxing career had begun.
“I moved to Canada from Armenia in 2011 with my family, I was 16 years old,” Bazinyan told ProBox TV.
“I was already boxing in Armenia before I moved here, I carried on after we came to Canada. Arthur Abraham and Vic Darchinyan were my inspirations, they were legends at the time in Armenia. They inspired me a lot watching them on TV, watching everyone supporting them.
“From there I went to a gym with some friends and I started to really like it. Then I trained everyday for two months, I had my first [amateur] fight after five months. I won the Golden Gloves Championship, then I was with Team Quebec, I went on many international tournaments. Places like Poland, it was a nice experience.”
Boxing’s biggest star, Saul Canelo Alvarez, rules the roost at super middleweight as the undisputed champion. In the meantime the undefeated 28 year old has to take care of the much less fashionable Godoy.
“It’s a fight where I need to stay active,” Bazinyan explained. “This is my fourth fight in one year. He’s an experienced veteran, he has about 48 fights, he fought John Ryder and some other pretty good names. I’m taking him seriously and expecting him to give me a good fight. After this fight, hopefully we can start rolling out some big fights.”
Bazinyan linked up with Canada’s leading trainer Marc Ramsey in 2018. The Yerevan born man has maintained the elite trainers services as he heads into the business end of his career.
“They have improved my style a lot,” Bazinyan said. “They are very punctual and professional. I have learned to be serious and focused under Marc. They have improved me physically, showed me how to be more physical in the ring. For the big leagues you need more power, you need to be more physical, it is not a joke in world title fights. I’m a complete fighter, we have worked on that everyday in the gym until now.”
Canelo’s belts will expectedly scatter in 2024. Bazinyan sits well perched for a title shot alongside stablemate Christian Mbilli, who is also ranked in the upper echelons of all four governing bodies.
“Sadly it won’t happen as me and Mbilli have the same coach,” Bazinyan answered to a proposed vacant title fight with his stablemate. “We have the same promoter, we train together and we are good friends. It is not going to happen. If we got offered five to ten million, then for sure, yeah, but it won’t happen. This year will be a big year for us. Hopefully after this fight, we will get an international fight in the States or something good.”
