Darchinyan To Move Up A Weight Class

By Dave Lahr: IBF/WBA/WBC super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1, 26 KOs) is planning on moving up a weight class to the bantamweight division in the near future in hopes of earning a title in a third weight class. Darchinyan, 33, already has previously won titles in both the flyweight and super flyweight divisions and is now in the stages of moving up to face either Joseph Agbeko, the IBF bantamweight champion or WBC belt holder Hozumi Hasagawa.

There’s little reason for Darchinyan to stay in the super flyweight division because there’s only Fernando Montiel, the WBO champion, and that’s not much of a reason for Darchinyan to stick around to face him. Darchinyan would like to face International Boxing Federation flyweight champion Nonito Donaire in a rematch.

Donaire previously knocked Darchinyan out in the 5th round two years ago in July 2007. However, Darchinyan’s promoter Gary Shaw doesn’t want Darchinyan to face Donaire in a rematch, because he feels that Donaire was disloyal, reportedly stemming from the fact that Donaire leaving Shaw to fight with Bob Arum. As such, it doesn’t look as if Darchinyan will be fighting Donaire any time soon if ever.

In moving to the bantamweight division, Darchinyan has a number of good choices besides Agbeko and Hasagawa. There’s also Gerry Penalosa, the WBO champion and Anselmo Moreno, the WBA champion, both of which I consider to be much better fighters than Agbeko and Hasagawa.

That’s possibly the reason why Darchinyan is looking at fighting them rather than Penalosa and Moreno, because they present much less of a threat for Vic. On Saturday, Darchinyan battered an overwhelmed Jorge Arce, stopping him in the 11th round in a bad mismatch. Arce looked way out of his league against the powerful Darchinyan and was never able to get into the fight.

He tried to land some shots early on but was beaten back each time by the much more powerful Darchinyan. As the rounds progressed, Arce did less and less, mostly just taking shots and looking old, slow and uncoordinated. The fight could have arguably been stopped as early as the 4th, because Arce was doing little after this round and looked weak legged, as if he had starved himself in making weight.

Arce was stunned by some big shots early in the fight, which seemed to make him hesitant to mix it up with Darchinyan by the 6th round. After the 11th round, the ringside doctor stopped the fight due to a couple of bad cuts around both of Arce’s eyes.

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