Azat Hovhannisyan (born 15 August 1988) is an Armenian

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

who challenged for the WBC

super-bantamweight Super bantamweight, also known as junior featherweight, is a weight class in professional boxing, contested from and up to . There were attempts by boxing promoters in the 1920s to establish this weight class, but few sanctioning organizations or ...

title in 2018. As of August 2020, he is ranked as the world's sixth best active super-bantamweight by

BoxRec BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopaedia of boxing. The objective of the site is to document every profess ...

, ninth by '' The Ring'' and tenth by the

Transnational Boxing Rankings Board The Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB) is an all-volunteer initiative formed in October 2012 with the intention of providing professional boxing with authoritative top-ten rankings, identifying the singular world champion of every divisio ...

Professional career

Hovhannisyan made his professional debut on 23 April 2011, losing by

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...

(UD) over four rounds against Juan Reyes at the

Nokia Theatre L.A. Live Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. After compiling a record of 12–2 (10 KOs) he faced Sergio Frias for the vacant WBC Continental Americas

title on 23 September 2017, at The Forum in

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...

. Serving as part of the undercard for the world title fight between

Jorge Linares Jorge Luis Linares Palencia (born 22 August 1985) is a Venezuelan professional boxer. He has held world championships in three weight classes, including the WBC featherweight title from 2007 to 2008; the WBA super featherweight title from 20 ...

and Luke Campbell, Hovhannisyan captured his first professional title with a wide UD victory. Two judges scored the bout 100–90 and the third scored it 98–92. He made a successful defence of his regional title in March 2018, defeating

Ronny Rios Ronny Rios (born January 22, 1990) is an American professional boxer. He has held the WBC- NABF super bantamweight title since 2019 and challenged for the WBC super bantamweight title in 2017. and the unified WBA (super) and IBF super bantamweig ...

via sixth-round

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

(KO), before challenging WBC super-bantamweight champion

Rey Vargas Rey Geovani Vargas Roldán (born November 25, 1990) is a Mexican professional boxer. He is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBC featherweight title since July 2022 and the WBC super bantamweight title from February 2017 t ...

on 12 May at the

Turning Stone Resort Casino Turning Stone Resort Casino is a Native American resort casino owned and operated by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York (OIN) in Verona, New York. The facility opened on July 20, 1993, and offers golf amenities (on- and off-site golf course ...

Verona, New York Verona (called ''Te-o-na-ta-le'', "''pine forest''" by the Haudenosaunee) is a town in southwestern Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 6,293 at the 2010 census. The town was named after Verona, Italy. Verona is located so ...

. Hovhannisyan suffered his third professional defeat, losing by UD with the judges scorecards reading 118–110, 117–111, and 116–112.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hovhannisyan, Azat Living people 1988 births Sportspeople from Yerevan Armenian male boxers Super-bantamweight boxers