Vic Darchinyan vs. Nicholas Walters on May 31st in Macao, China

By Boxing News - 04/10/2014 - Comments

darchinyan4By Chris Williams: Former two division world champion Vic Darchinyan (39-6-1, 28 KO’s) will be fighting his second consecutive fight in the 126lb division when he faces WBA World featherweight champion Nicholas Walters (23-0, 19 KO’s) at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China. Walters is the guy that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum had wanted to match against Nonito Donaire, but he changed his mind for some reason after Donaire had his faced fractured in his last fight against Darchinyan last November. Donaire won the fight by a 9th round TKO, but he suffered a hairline fracture in his face in that fight.

Darchinyan did such a good job in that fight that they decided to let him fight on HBO again in the featherweight division, even though he’s someone who hasn’t been a really effective fighter since he left the super flyweight division years ago. Darchinyan was nearly unbeatable at flyweight and super flyweight, but there was no money in those divisions, so he kept moving up in weight to chase the bigger fights.

On the same card as the Darchinyan-Walters fight will be Donaire challenging for a world title against WBA Super World featherweight champion Simpiwe Vetyeke. Donaire has the much easier job in facing Vetyeke than Darchinyan does in facing Walters.

Also on the card is super bantamweights Chris Avalos and Yasutaka Ishimoto fighting a 12 round bout. IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich will be facing Alexander Miskirtchian.

The winner of these fights will battle it out with likely Walters facing either Donaire or Vetyeke. It’s hard to pick a winner of the Donaire vs. Vetyeke fight because Donaire hasn’t looked like the same fighter he once was since his win over little Jorge Arce in December 2012. That was a long time ago, and Donaire looked terrible in a loss to Guillermo Rigondeaux last year. He didn’t even bother trying to avenge the loss despite the fact that Rigondeaux was interested in beating him again if he wanted to fight.

Darchinyan is an odd choice for someone fighting for a world title at this point because he’s lost 3 out of his last 5 fights. The World Boxing Association is really lowering their standards by letting Darchinyan fight for a title. But then again, boxing is more like a popularity contest nowadays with the popular or well-known fighters getting chances that lesser known fighter’s get, even when the well-known fighters are no longer winning on a regular basis like Darchinyan.



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