By Chris Williams: Instead of looking to avenge his lopsided defeat against Guillermo Rigondeaux, Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) will be facing the struggling 37-year-old Vic Darchinyan (39-5-1, 28 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at featherweight on November 9th in a fight that will be televised on HBO.
Dan Rafael of ESPN is reporting that the Doniare-Darchinyan fight is set for November, and will likely be taking place in Corpus Christi. Top Rank plans on having Mexican American Mikey Garcia facing WBO super featherweight champion Roman Martinez in the main event of the card. Also on the card will be junior middleweights Vanes Martirosyan vs. Demetrius Andrade.
Darchinyan, who is small for even a bantamweight, was trying to get Donaire to face him at a catch-weight in between super bantamweight and featherweight at 124, but Donaire wasn’t interested in doing that. It would have only meant that Donaire would have had to come in 2 pounds under the 126 lb. featherweight limit, but he didn’t want to do it. Darchinyan gave in on it.
Donaire’s manager Cameron Dunkin told ESPN “Darchinyan is an awkward guy and he can punch. He’s a dangerous guy and he really wants revenge. You never take a guy like this lightly. Anything can happen in this business.”
Well I’m sure that Darchinyan doesn’t mind the payday as well. I’m betting that’s the biggest reason he’s taking this fight, because he’s going to be at a big disadvantage in this fight in more ways than one.
Darchinyan’s not the same fighter he once was, and he’s been soundly beaten in 2 out of his last four fights in losses to Shinsuke Yamanaka and Anselmo Moreno. Those weren’t close fights. Darchinyan was easily beaten by both guys, so he’s not exactly coming into the second fight with Donaire in great shape career-wise.
Darchinyan is 37, and will be turning 38 soon. Donaire already knocked Darchinyan out in the 5th round in 2007, and the time has already passed for them to have fought again. A rematch back in 2007 or 2008 would have made sense, but not in 2013 with Darchinyan nearing 40, and having lost 2 out of his last 4 fights.
Donaire was beaten by Rigondeaux, and he had talked about wanting to fight him again to avenge his loss. It looks like Donaire must have had a change of mind. But by picking Darchinyan, Donaire is pretty much guaranteeing himself a win. If he can’t beat Darchinyan, then it’s all over with for Donaire. This is a fight that he should win easily.
It’s difficult to see where Top Rank is going to steer Donaire at featherweight. If they put him in with Jhonny Gonzalez, Donaire will probably take a beating and get knocked out. Arum won’t match Donaire against Mikey Garcia, because that would guarantee a loss for one of them, and Arum wants to make sure these two money makers don’t lose.
Much of Donaire’s weight advantages that he previously had in fighting at super bantamweight will be disappearing against the featherweights. I’m sure Donaire will have a weight advantage over some of them, but it won’t be like it was when he was fighting at 122.
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