Darchinyan Looks to Capture Bantamweight Title

By Sam Gregory: This Saturday night, July 11th, Vic Darchinyan is looking to capture the IBF bantamweight title from Joseph Agbeko when the two clash at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida to be televised live on Showtime.

Darchinyan, who has been sparring with featherweight champion Chris John while he’s been training in the United States for this fight, has fought over 170 amateur fights including competing for Armenia in the 2004 Olympics. The Raging Bull has a professional record of 32-1 with 26 KO’s and has fought top level opposition over the last six years from the flyweight to super flyweight divisions.

The IBF bantamweight champion Joseph “King Kong” Agbeko (26-1 with 22 KO’s) has very minimal experience against top-level opponents. Agbeko has only fought in the U.S. three times; an overwhelming number of his fights were in Ghana against very questionable opposition. Agbeko also took a 14 month layoff from boxing before his last title defense last December.

Both these fighters are cocky and have plenty to say outside the ring. The difference is that Darchinyan can usually backup what he says inside the ring.

Vic Darchinyan has an extremely awkward looking southpaw style. He fights in a crouching stance with his hands held far apart but he’s capable of exploding out of his stance and unleashing with some vicious single shot jabs and combinations to the body and head. The dangerous thing for Darchinyan’s opponents is his ability to throw awkward looping, overhand punches, hooks and uppercuts coming from an unpredictable and frustrating angle.

Agbeko is an orthodox boxer-puncher who is aggressive, likes to push forward with a decent jab, straight right hand and nice hook shots. The 29 year old native of Ghana doesn’t use a lot of footwork and tends to stand in front of his opponent instead of using angles. He does have a decent knockout punch, 22 of his 26 wins are by way of knockout but the fighters he knocked out are basically unknown, questionable fighters.

Joseph Agbeko has fought at bantamweight for his entire career. Although the 29 year old Ghanaian is said to be in the prime of his career he has only had one stoppage past the seventh round. This will clearly be the biggest fight of his career.

Vic Darchinyan is cocky and confident and for good reason. He’s a four-time world champion at flyweight and super flyweight. He is currently in the top ten pound for pound list on boxrec (#6) and Ring magazine (#8).

The only blemish on Darchinyan’s record is a fifth round stoppage at the hands of Nonito Donaire two years ago. When the question of a re-match was brought up, Gary Shaw (Darchinyan’s promoter) basically said concerning his next fight, it would depend on who the biggest draw would be. Shaw doesn’t consider Donaire to be a big draw name and apparently neither does his promoter Bob Arum. The hell with what fight fans might want to see Shaw and Arum are about money.

The idea of Darchinyan staying at the bantamweight limit of 118 pounds after this fight has also been tossed around. In a conference call a couple weeks ago Darchinyan said, “Maybe I stay for a year at bantamweight and unify the titles then move up a division, I want to win more world titles”.

At the age of 33 Vic Darchinyan seems to have gotten better with age, especially over the last three years. He’s a hard tough guy who won’t be “out toughed”. Having been in the pro ranks for only nine years Darchinyan is as unpredictable as he is cocky. He relishes the attention he gets and wants to achieve legendary status as a slugger. He has great stamina and has stopped plenty of fighters in the late rounds.

His somewhat wild and unorthodox style along with his cocky attitude makes him entertaining to watch; whether you love him or hate him he’s one of those guys you love to watch fight.

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