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Darchinyan-Arce: Finally
FRI February 6, BRIAN BLAKE - This Saturday night (9:00PM/EST) at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, Showtime Championship Boxing kicks off it's 2009 season with one of the most highly anticipated matchups in what will be a fight filled February as unified, WBA, WBC and IBF super flyweight champion Vic ‘The Raging Bull’ Darchinyan’ (31-1-1) takes on former three-time champion Jorge ‘Travieso’ Arce (54-4-1).
Both men possess a hard hitting, crowd pleasing style that makes it no wonder why fight fans and writers alike have been salivating over this matchup for years now. Not to mention the fact that they each have the ability to make any routine press conference a memorable event.
Never at a loss for words, Vic states, “I don’t underestimate my opponent. But with any opponent I tell you what I will do with them. I believe any opponent who I fight I will dominate and destroy. I believe I will knock him out, but I won’t knock him out in one round. That would be too easy for him. I am going to demolish him, destroy him and knock him out. He is going to remember me all his life."
Through his career the once-beaten Darchinyan has compiled an impressive 25 stoppage wins in his 33 professional bouts, so it’s really no surprise that the champion is confident the night will end early. Another thing that isn’t surprising is that the challenger sees it just a little bit differently.
“He is a lefty, but he is not one of those cuties. He’s a real aggressive guy. I think that he will be right in front of me and that will work perfect for me. I think my left hook is my best weapon. I think I will land my left before he does, and that will be the difference."
Current flyweight champ Nonito Donaire proved that landing that one big left hook is all it takes. In the fifth frame of their fight Donaire would land a crushing blow that would land Vic in more trouble than Barry Bonds in front of a grand jury, producing a win that would garner Nonito Ring Magazine’s ‘2007 Knockout and Upset Of The Year’ honors.
Since that lone setback Darchinyan has gone 3-0-1 with all of his wins coming by way of knockout. Most recently came last year against then unified champ, Christian Mijares. Vic was able to put use his aggression to dominate Mijares before stopping him in the ninth stanza, thus adding the WBC and WBA titles to the IBF strap he walked in with.
On the other end, the Sinaloan fighter, Jorge Arce didn’t have the same success when he took on Mijares in early 2007. Arce was forced to eat counter shots all night long while Mijares cruised to a one-sided decision win. Speaking on that loss Arce would say, “My career was taking off,(but) then when I lost to Mijares, people thought I wasn’t as good of a boxer as some people thought I was. They thought I was just a singer and a celebrity and an entertainer. But everyone has bad nights. I just had a bad night that day. The media and fans don’t understand that I can have a bad night.”
“Now I face a guy that knocked out Mijares and I am going to knock him out. And then everyone will talk about me like they did before I lost to Mijares," Arce would go on to say.
Since then he has rattled off five consecutive wins with four ending within the distance and picking up and interim belt along the way.
It was probably those two setbacks that the fighters faced that kept the boxing world from witnessing Saturday’s showdown earlier. But hey, better late than never.
“We are eagerly looking forward to when these two fighting tigers take center ring. Arce has been looking forward to facing Vic Darchinyan for a long time and he will get his opportunity on Feb. 7. Everybody who follows boxing, particularly those following the fighters in this weight category, has been talking about this fight for years and they are talking like this is a fight of the year. Finally, Saturday, it will happen." Bob Arum, of Top Rank announced.
Although the other half of the promotional team, Gary Shaw would disagree with Arum’s notion that Arce has been looking forward to fighting the Armenian born, Australian based, Darchinyan, as Shaw would state, “Arce happens to be special because Vic chased him around the world in order to fight him and every time we made the fight they ran away. Arce continues to run. He’s got a big mouth on the phone but he didn’t show up to the press conference."
Whatever the case might have been, the fact of the matter is that this Saturday these two, hard hitting, super flyweight sluggers, get a chance to stop talking and stake their claim to the division‘s top spot, and I’m just happy it’s finally taking place.
No matter how long it lasts.
* * * * Questions or Comments can be sent to brianoblake@yahoo.com * * * *
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