Darchinyan vs. Mbamba on September 3

By Dan Ambrose: Bantamweight Vic Darchinyan (36-3-1, 27 KO’s) will be taking a break from taking on world class opposition to fight little known Evans Mbamba (18-1, 9 KO’s) in a 12 round bout on September 3rd at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex in Yerevan, Armenia. This is going to be a nice easy home fight for the 35-year-old Darchinyan to rest up from the bantamweight tourney that he just finished taking part in.

Mbamba, 29, has faced mostly limited opposition with mediocre records until 2008, when started stepping it up against B class opposition. He was beaten by Tomas Rojas by a lopsided 12 round decision when he tried to step it up a level in 2009, and then rebounded from that victory recently against another C level opponent Michael Ramabeletsa.

Darchinyan recently defeated Yonnhy Perez by a 5th round stoppage last April to capture the International Boxing Organization (IBO) bantamweight strap. Before that, Darchinyan was outworked by Abner Mares in a 12 round split decision loss in December 2010.

Darchinyan needs to seriously consider moving back down in weight to the super flyweight or flyweight. He’s not the dominant fighter that he once was since moving up to the bantamweight division in 2009. Darchinyan is still among the best in the division but not the very best fighter like he used to be when fighting at the lower weights.

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