Darchinyan wants rematches with Donaire or Mares

By Boxing News - 04/24/2011 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Former two division world champion Vic Darchinyan (36-3-1, 27 KO’s) defeated Yonnhy Perez (20-2-1, 14 KO’s) by a 5th round technical decision last night in Showtime’s bantamweight tournament at the Nokia Theater, in Los Angeles, California. The 35-year-old Darchinyan showed his old punching power and aggression that previously made him one of the best fighters in the flyweight and super flyweight divisions. Since moving up to bantamweight, however, Darchinyan’s punching power has abandoned him as he’s had two 12 round decision losses, one 12 round decision win over little known Eric Barcelona and now a 5th round technical decision victory against Perez.

Instead of recognizing that it might be better off to move back down in weight where his power is much more formidable, Darchinyan wants to take on Abner Mares of Nonito Donaire, two of the fighters that have beaten him. Donaire stopped Darchinyan in a 5th round TKO in 2007, and Mares recently defeated Darchinyan by a 12 round split decision in December. If Darchinyan can’t get the fights with either of them, he plans on moving up in weight yet again, this time to super bantamweight to go after the top fighters at that weight. It seems like a crazy thing to do because there isn’t any big stars at super bantamweight and the closest thing that you can come to a star is Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., a fighter that is popular in his home country of Puerto Rico but not in the U.S.

The chances of Darchinyan getting a fight with Donaire right now aren’t good. Donaire is still dealing with promoter problems and likely won’t be available to fight Darchinyan anytime soon. Darchinyan could get a rematch with Mares, but that’s not likely to happen next because we’ll probably be seeing a fight between Mares and Joseph Agbeko next. That was supposed to be the bantamweight tournament finals bout, but Agbeko suffered a back injury while on a long plane fight to Los Angeles and couldn’t make last night’s fight. This leaves Darchinyan with little option but to either wait for one of those fighters to get available or move up in weight and take on one of the top fighters at super bantamweight.

Darchinyan might be sadly disappointed if he thinks he’s going to find a mega fight at super bantamweight. There just isn’t any big stars at that weight. Darchinyan will have to move up another division to featherweight if he wants to find a star that he could fight. However, Darchinyan is much too small to take on featherweights like Juan Manuel Lopez, Orlando Salido and Yuriorkis Gamboa. It would be sad to see Darchinyan getting pummeled by these bigger fighters when he has no business fighting at that weight. He should move back down in weight to super flyweight and take on Omar Narvaez or Hugo Cazares. Those would be great fights for Darchinyan. He also could move back down to flyweight and take on slugger Hernan Marquez or Giovanni Segura. I like those fights much better than seeing Darchinyan move up to super bantamweight and taking on Vazquez Jr.



Comments are closed.